After something of a disastrous 2014 as far as public relations goes, the NSA chose Christmas Eve to release a pile of incriminating reports forced out into the open by a Freedom of Information request from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The heavily redacted documents reveal evidence of illegal surveillance and staff errors, and the National Security Agency itself admits that analysts deliberately ignored restrictions on their authority to spy on Americans multiple times in the past decade.
The ACLU say the released reports show the potential dangers of the NSAs surveillance policies and the ease with which data can be misused. The government conducts sweeping surveillance under this authority surveillance that increasingly puts Americans data in the hands of the NSA, Patrick C. Toomey, staff attorney with the ACLUs National Security Project, told Bloomberg. Despite that fact, this spying is conducted almost entirely in secret and without legislative or judicial oversight.
Related:NSAs Auroragold program spies on carriers to break into cell networks
The ACLU is calling for greater oversight for all three branches of government, originally filing the suit to bring to light the implications of an intelligence gathering executive order first issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Since then, it has undergone a variety of modifications, and gives the NSA the ability to gather information about U.S. citizens as a consequence of overseas data monitoring. By law, the agency cannot deliberately intercept messages from Americans, but these messages are often hauled in together with communications captured outside the country
For the NSAs part, it says that any data it shouldnt have is deleted as soon as its spotted. In its executive summary, the agency goes on to say that where illegal spying occurred it was largely due to a mistake on the part of one of its analysts rather than deliberate rule-breaking: The vast majority of compliance incidents involve unintentional technical or human error, reads the summary. NSA goes to great lengths to ensure compliance with the Constitution, laws and regulations.
One 2012 case, for example, shows an NSA analyst searching through her spouses personal telephone directory without his knowledge to obtain names and telephone numbers for targeting; that analyst has been advised to cease her activities, says the report. In another case an analyst mistakenly requested surveillance of himself rather than an individual identified through a foreign intelligence target report.
In another incident from 2012 an analyst ordered surveillance on a U.S. organization that he wasnt authorized to carry out. The analyst incorrectly believed that he was authorized to query [the data] due to a potential threat, reads the report, though nothing came of the surveillance. Any potential violations of NSA regulations are required to be reported to an oversight board as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and its reports to the latter office from 2001 to 2013 that have now been made public.
More here:
NSA has been spying on Americans, new documents reveal
- WikiLeaks' Julian Assange: NSA critics got lucky because agency had no PR strategy - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- National Speakers Association New Jersey Chapter NSA - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- National Security Agency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- NSA - Satu Hari Di Bulan Juni (TULUS) (COVER) - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- Hong Kong: Protesters blow whistles for NSA whistle blower - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- An Inside Look at the NSA With Whistleblower William Binney (Part 2 of 2) - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- UK: China will offer fig leaves to US exposed by NSA leaker - Assange - Video - April 26th, 2014 [April 26th, 2014]
- NSA ~ (Autodidactism) Whistleblowing - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Dropping #NSA Knowledge Like a Clumsy Librarian - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Full Show: Disband The NSA or; Corruption in the Capitol FO SHIZZLE {aTV002} - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- NSA DOCUMENTARY SIX YEARS BEFORE SNOWDEN - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- ShmooCon 2014: The NSA: Capabilities and Countermeasures - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- NSA Knew Of Heartbleed Bug, Refused To Protect Americans - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Former NSA Head To Become Columnist For Conservative Paper To Discuss Intelligence - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- An Inside Look at the NSA With Whistleblower William Binney (Part 1 of 2) - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Keynote Address by Shri Shivshankar Menon, NSA at International Seminar on Kautilya - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- NSA Wiretapping: A 4th Amendment Violation?: Blake Norvell at TEDxSMU - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- Hang with Rand: Email Privacy, NSA Spying, and Defending Our Civil Liberties - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- NSA Surveillance and What To Do About It - Bruce Schneier - Video - April 27th, 2014 [April 27th, 2014]
- READER SUBMITTED: NSA CT April 2014 Meeting - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- MVI 1847 Obama's NSA Denies FOIA About MH 370! - Video - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- George Galloway's Sputnik: Ewen MacAskill on Guardian / Edward Snowden NSA leaks (26Apr14) - Video - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- CIA & NSA DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON ATTACK ON WHISTLE BLOWER - Video - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- Book TV - 2014 San Antonio Book Festival: Panel on the NSA, Big Brother, and Democracy - Video - April 28th, 2014 [April 28th, 2014]
- NSA Throwdown: John Oliver v. 60 Minutes - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- NSA will sit on security vulnerabilities because of terrorism - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- New water records show NSA Utah Data Center likely behind schedule - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- MVI 1871 NSA Might Be OnTo Me! - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- ZyXEL NSA 325 v2 Hands On - Deutsch / German notebooksbilliger.de - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- German opposition says US should destroy Merkel's NSA file - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Germany: NSA spying "unacceptable" says SPD - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- NSA Surveillance 2 - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- NSA Surveillance Panel 1 - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- Chalk Talk How Snowden Breached NSA Security - Video - April 29th, 2014 [April 29th, 2014]
- NSA reveals some cyber security flaws are left secret - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- NSA data center uses less water than expected - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- April 2014 Breaking News Do you use Google or Yahoo? NSA Intercepts Google And Yahoo Traffic - Video - April 30th, 2014 [April 30th, 2014]
- Supreme Court could weigh in on NSA case, justice says - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- New NSA chief: Agency has lost trust - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- NSA on Heartbleed: 'We're not legally allowed to lie to you' - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- What's The NSA Doing Now? Training More Cyberwarriors - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Anonymous NSA - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Cutting off H2O to the NSA - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Brazil: Greenwald slams US media, shares tips to avoid NSA - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- NSA IS TRYINGG 2 KILL ME FAMS - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- What was more popular on Twitter, NSA, NRA or NBA..today? - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- CIS111: NSA Uncovered - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Views from the Street on NSA Activities and Liberty (6/6) - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Views from the Street on NSA Activities and Liberty (4/6) - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Views from the Street on NSA Activities and Liberty (3/6) - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Views from the Street on NSA Activities and Liberty (2/6) - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Views from the Street on NSA Activities and Liberty (1/6) - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Germany: NSA may have accidentally outed secret base - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- ZyXEL NSA 325 v2 Installations-Wizard - Deutsch / German notebooksbilliger.de - Video - May 1st, 2014 [May 1st, 2014]
- Tech firms to increase alerts about police requests for data -- report - May 2nd, 2014 [May 2nd, 2014]
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits US, after the NSA eavesdropping scandal - Video - May 2nd, 2014 [May 2nd, 2014]
- NSA spies on more US citizens than Russians Snowden - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- THE NEXT NSA?Police under scrutiny for using spying technology - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- Ukraine and NSA will test Merkel - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- The Latest Attacks On NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden - Kevin Gosztola Discusses - Video - May 3rd, 2014 [May 3rd, 2014]
- Still Report #246 - NSA Classifies MH370 Material - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- Code Talker Induction into NSA Hall of Honor - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- NSA ( National Security Agency ) refusal to release documents on UFO's - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- Obama & NSA Refuse FOIA Request on Malaysia Flight deemed classified - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- Kafkawinstons World`s Channel Terminated NSA is replacing Channel`s with Sockpuppet Channel`s - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- NSA Volunteer Justin Hall at the NSA Comedy Tour February 2014 - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- Barack Obama on NSA Surveillance I'd Be Concerned Too If I Wasn't in Government - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- GBPPR Vision #26: Overview of the NSA's TAWDRYYARD Radar Retro-Reflector - Video - May 4th, 2014 [May 4th, 2014]
- NSA proof phone Case - Video - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- 2014 NSA 2014 Million Dollar Publisher's Lab - Video - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- Gen. Michael Hayden - the Former Director of NSA and the CIA - Video - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- REVEALED: Here's The Solution To That Encoded NSA Puzzle Tweet - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- Michael Hayden's Unwitting Case Against Secret Surveillance - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- NSA's Encrypted Tweet: We're Hiring Code Breakers - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- Russ Tice: Life as a NSA Whistleblower - Video - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- What Is Going on at NSA These Days - Video - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- What is the Role of the NSA? AFF Dallas Debates - Video - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- Edward Snowden said CIA , and NSA had 52. 6 Billion for black budget - Video - May 5th, 2014 [May 5th, 2014]
- NSA looks to appeal to young cryptographers through coded ads - May 6th, 2014 [May 6th, 2014]
- Code Cracked: Mysterious NSA Tweet Is Decrypted in Seconds - May 6th, 2014 [May 6th, 2014]