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NSA searched data troves for 198 'identifiers' of Americans' information
Source: The Guardian
NSA searched data troves for 198 'identifiers' of Americans' information
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
theguardian.com, Monday 30 June 2014 20.34 BST
The National Security Agency searched through its data troves of emails and other communications data for 198 "identifiers" of Americans' information in 2013 alone, a practice civil libertarians denounce as a way to evade constitutional privacy protections.
The figures were disclosed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence following pressure from Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat on the intelligence community who termed the data dives a "backdoor search."
They also showed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency also comb through NSA content databases – not simply data about communications – for Americans' information.
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The 198 "identifiers" do not necessarily indicate 198 Americans had their information searched, nor do they necessarily indicate NSA performed 198 content searches for Americans during 2013. The NSA also conducted about 9,500 queries of associated "metadata" using US persons' identifiers – such as a phone number or email address - in 2013, and considers 36% of such queries "duplicative."
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
theguardian.com, Monday 30 June 2014 20.34 BST
The National Security Agency searched through its data troves of emails and other communications data for 198 "identifiers" of Americans' information in 2013 alone, a practice civil libertarians denounce as a way to evade constitutional privacy protections.
The figures were disclosed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence following pressure from Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat on the intelligence community who termed the data dives a "backdoor search."
They also showed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency also comb through NSA content databases – not simply data about communications – for Americans' information.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
The 198 "identifiers" do not necessarily indicate 198 Americans had their information searched, nor do they necessarily indicate NSA performed 198 content searches for Americans during 2013. The NSA also conducted about 9,500 queries of associated "metadata" using US persons' identifiers – such as a phone number or email address - in 2013, and considers 36% of such queries "duplicative."
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/30/nsa-data-troves-identifiers-information
