NSA Collecting Private Data to Socially-Profile Americans

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/28-4



Latest revelations based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden show how the NSA uses some of the data it collects

NSA Collecting Private Data to Socially-Profile Americans
- Common Dreams staff
Published on Saturday, September 28, 2013 by Common Dreams

York Times' James Risen, shows that the National Intelligence Agency is using its massive data collections capabilities to develop 'social profiles' of individuals based on their telephone calls and online habits.

In a story published online Saturday and slated to appear in Sunday's print edition of the Times, Poitras and Risen cite documents made available to them by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and report:

Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials.

The spy agency began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine Americans’ networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after N.S.A. officials lifted restrictions on the practice (...)