NSA collected far more data from ordinary citizens than legitimate targets

A recent report by an agency that oversees US spy agencies stated that the NSA spied on nearly 90,000 targets in 2013. According to a study done by The Washington Post, the NSA collected more data from ordinary internet users than legitimate targets. The data was collected using surveillance technology that taps directly into the internet backbone. This data included more than 120,000 instant messages, approximately 22,000 emails and nearly 4,000 social network messages from 11,400 users. Content included medical records, intimate chat messages and photos, and photographs of infants and young children. Also included were 160,000 intercepted telephone conversations, Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) traffic carried on the internet.

To legitimately spy on the content of US communications, the NSA needs to get an individual warrants. However, warrants are not required if the intended targets are foreign nationals. NSA analysts targeted non-english language emails under the assumption that the mail belonged to foreigners and that all addresses on the senders' contact list were also foreigners. As a result of this flawed thinking, a considerable number of innocent US citizens' privacy was violated.

On a positive note, The Post, in order to avoid interfering with ongoing operations did not describe in detail " revelations about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks." However, they stated that the study has also revealed “collateral harm to privacy on a scale that the Obama administration has not been willing to address”.

(Richard Gunzel is a Data Protection Specialist and founder of Secure IT Risk Solutions, LLC)