Report: NSA Spied On 124 Billion Phone Calls In One Month

[Cypher3927]

The National Security Agency recorded information about more than 124 billion phone calls during a 30-day period earlier this year, including around 3 billion calls from U.S. sources, according to a tally from top-secret documents released by multiple news outlets.

Documents revealing details about the NSA’s Boundless Informant program show that information regarding billions of phone calls and computer communications was collected by the agency from across the world.

Boundless Informant “allows users to select a country on a map and view the meta data volume and select details about the collections against that country,” according to the Guardian, which first reported on the top secret program earlier this year.

Multiple leaked screenshots of the Boundless Informant program show that information on around 124.8 billion phone calls were collected in just 30-days this year, according to documents released by the Guardian and other news sites.

The documents provide a window into the sheer volume of data being collected by the NSA as late as March of this year, according to the Guardian.

Critics of the NSA’s multiple data collection programs, which include PRISM, argue that innocent Americans run the risk of having their personal communications monitored. Its defenders maintain that the program has been a key tool in the fight against terrorism.

It is unlikely that the NSA examined the content of all of these calls, though it seems possible that the security organization could single out any of the snatched calls and other communications.

The sheer extent of the NSA’s data collection effort were compiled from the multiple sources and organized on Wednesday by members of intelligence website Cryptome, which regularly publishes government documents and other information.

Much of the information recorded by the NSA appears to have originated in the greater Middle East.

The majority of the calls monitored by the NSA appeared to have emanated from Pakistan and Afghanistan, where 13.76 billion and 21.98 billion calls were respectively collected over the time period, according to the Boundless Informant “heat map” revealed by the Guardian.

About 1.73 billion calls, or “DNRs” (Dialed numbers recorded), were collected from Iran, while 1.64 billion were traced back to Jordan. Additionally, some 6.28 billion calls from India were collected.

Perhaps the most controversial element of the program is its efforts to collect both phone and computer data from Western nations that have friendly relations with the United States.

Boundless Informant appears to have collected information from hundreds of million calls traced back to Germany in a single 30-day-period, according to documents published by Der Spiegel Online.

Spain accounted for another 61 million and Italy for 46 million, according to the published screenshots and tallies posted to Cryptome.

France’s Le Monde newspaper alleged this week that the NSA recorded more than 70 million phone calls through January of this year. However, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper immediately rejected the claim.

Another 97 billion bits of information were pulled by the NSA from global computer networks, according to the map and original story by the Guardian.

Source: The Washington Free Beacon

[Matt]

Oh yes spying on people this all usa about they alot of money for army to kill others and spying on the rest

[Ambrocious]

When a nations power comes from an act of international espionage and suddenly it gets exposed to the max, the power gets strangulated slowly as people find and develop new ways to protect privacy, for the sake of peace of mind and the security of knowing you can walk in the buff without entertaining the NSA watching you threw your laptop which might be open.

There is a natural reflex that happens after a nation who was formally powerful now finds thier self loosing thier power to spy on the planet: they fortify and prepare for battle. They understand that they have committed interantional espionage on almost EVERY level of privacy invasion imaginable! Trade secrets, technology trademarks, cures to illness...all siezed by the government who has always seemed to know when a bear shits in the woods...to the milisecond (sarcasm?). Many people find it hard to believe that the USA government could do such a horrible thing and that even thinking such things make me bad somehow...but that's just you being afraid of the truth.

The truth is that we are facing (as humanity in whole) is a struggle against time to stop the overthrow of the United States of America via a Coup d'état via the Obama administration by usurping extra judicial powers to illiminate the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States of America. He is NOT the only President of the United States who is guilty of high crimes either. Our government was made mighty by it's secret hold over the world by it's information monopoly. Knowledge is power? Yes.

Informational Monopolism is what the USA governemnt has and until it looses that status it will remain the super power of the world. Already though, people are discovering the "how" methods in which we are being violated are taking place in our modern day technology in order to counter those survailence methods. Make no mistake, this spy grid is multifaceted. They have many other ways of spying on people, it's just more convientient to use technology in a mass produced and non suspected methods rather than using micro drones with cams, but those too can be used.

I would agree to be spied on completely...if I'm also allowed to spy on every single individual who spies on me...it's only fair to invite me to the party too right!?

Edited October 25, 2013 by Ambrocious