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NSA collects millions of text messages daily in 'untargeted' global sweep
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
Posted: January 20th, 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-mi...
The National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million text messages a day from across the globe, using them to extract data including location, contact networks and credit card details, according to top-secret documents. The NSA program, codenamed Dishfire, collects pretty much everything it can, according to GCHQ documents, rather than merely storing the communications of existing surveillance targets. The NSA has made extensive use of its vast text message database to extract information on peoples travel plans, contact books, financial transactions and more including of individuals under no suspicion of illegal activity. On average, each day the NSA was able to extract: More than 5 million missed-call alerts, for use in contact-chaining analysis (working out someones social network from who they contact and when) Details of 1.6 million border crossings a day, from network roaming alerts More than 110,000 names, from electronic business cards, which also included the ability to extract and save images. Over 800,000 financial transactions, either through text-to-text payments or linking credit cards to phone users The agency was also able to extract geolocation data from more than 76,000 text messages a day, including from requests by people for route info and setting up meetings.
Note: For more on government surveillance, see the deeply revealing reports from reliable major media sources available here.
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