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NSA taps data to map out Americans’ social links
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For almost three years the US National Security Agency has been tapping the data it collects to map out some Americans’ social connections, allowing the government to identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to The New York Times.
Citing documents provided by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, the Times reported the NSA began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine some Americans’ networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after NSA officials lifted restrictions on the practice. The newspaper posted the report on its website on Saturday.
A January 2011 memorandum from the spy agency indicated the policy shift aimed to help the NSA “discover and track” links between intelligence targets overseas and people in the US, the Times said.
The documents Snowden provided indicated the NSA can augment the communications data with material from public, commercial and other sources, including bank codes, insurance information, Facebook profiles, passenger manifests, voter registration rolls and GPS location information, as well as property records and unspecified tax data, the paper said.
NSA officials declined to say how many Americans have been caught up in the effort, including people involved in no wrongdoing, the Times reported. The documents do not describe what has resulted from the scrutiny, which links phone numbers and e-mails in a “contact chain” tied directly or indirectly to a person or organization overseas that is of foreign intelligence interest, the paper reported.
The documents provided by Snowden don’t specify which phone and e-mail databases are used to create the social network diagrams, the Times reported, and NSA officials wouldn’t identify them.
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