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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNSA collects 5 billion records a day on cellphones
The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals and map their relationships in ways that would have been previously unimaginable.
The records feed a vast database that stores information about the locations of at least hundreds of millions of devices, according to the officials and the documents, which were provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. New projects created to analyze that data have provided the intelligence community with what amounts to a mass surveillance tool.
The NSA does not target Americans location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones incidentally, a legal term that connotes a foreseeable but not deliberate result.
One senior collection manager, speaking on condition of anonymity but with permission from the NSA, said we are getting vast volumes of location data from around the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. Additionally, data is often collected from the tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad with their cellphones every year.
In scale, scope and potential impact on privacy, the efforts to collect and analyze location data may be unsurpassed among the NSA surveillance programs that have been disclosed since June. Analysts can find cellphones anywhere in the world, retrace their movements and expose hidden relationships among individuals using them.
..
The records feed a vast database that stores information about the locations of at least hundreds of millions of devices, according to the officials and the documents, which were provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. New projects created to analyze that data have provided the intelligence community with what amounts to a mass surveillance tool.
The NSA does not target Americans location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones incidentally, a legal term that connotes a foreseeable but not deliberate result.
One senior collection manager, speaking on condition of anonymity but with permission from the NSA, said we are getting vast volumes of location data from around the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. Additionally, data is often collected from the tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad with their cellphones every year.
In scale, scope and potential impact on privacy, the efforts to collect and analyze location data may be unsurpassed among the NSA surveillance programs that have been disclosed since June. Analysts can find cellphones anywhere in the world, retrace their movements and expose hidden relationships among individuals using them.
..
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-tracking-cellphone-locations-worldwide-snowden-documents-show/2013/12/04/5492873a-5cf2-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html
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NSA collects 5 billion records a day on cellphones (Original Post)
DesMoinesDem
Dec 2013
OP
This is that meta data that doesn't matter and isn't looked at or used....
Jesus Malverde
Dec 2013
#2
BlueCheese
(2,522 posts)1. Just saw this article.
Sad that this is so expected that a thread like this is barely news on DU anymore.
The surveillance state is completely out of control. Those in power right now may want to do something about it before it becomes their legacy.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)2. This is that meta data that doesn't matter and isn't looked at or used....
or something like that....Leaking all over themselves now. It's like a confessional. This is going to be a bumpy ride.
Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)3. Holy Crap
5 Billion Terrorists and sympathizers world wide? Holy Crap. There is no way we can drone strike them all. We may have to go bigger gang.
Just in case I have to add it.
Fuck You NSA.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)4. K&R
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)5. Great... Yet another porn thread.