NSA Gathering Data on U.S. Citizens' Social Networks
The NSA has been using its collections of data since November 2010 to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, a New York Timesarticle reports.
The agency is using the analysis of phone calls and email logs to examine Americans’ networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes, and the shift in policy was intended to help the agency “discover and track” connections between intelligence targets overseas and people in the U.S.