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NSA's phone-tracking program is FAR more extensive than anyone knew
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] ...says investigative journalist who exposed classified documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden
  • Ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden shared thousands of classified documents about US surveillance programs with journalist Barton Gellman in 2013

  • One of those documents revealed that the NSA was tracking phone calls made by Americans inside the US

  • In an excerpt from his new book, Dark Mirror, Gellman lays out how the tool at the heart of the program works in unprecedented detail

  • The tool, Mainway, secretly scoured billions of phone records a day for years

  • It cultivated a database that was 'preconfigured to map anyone's life at the touch of a button', Gellman writes

  • The program was scaled back significantly in the wake of the Snowden leak, but a more restrained version is still in effect today

  • Though the NSA insists that the database is only used to investigate terrorists, Gellman raises concerns about how easily it could be abused

Posted by: Skidmark 2020-05-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=572566