We're talking about 5 billion cell phone records being tracked daily around the world, not excluding (but not primarily) Americans' phones -- particularly when we're traveling overseas. The revelation is based on data provided by Edward Snowden, but NSA admits that it's engaged in this activity and has allowed one official at NSA to talk to the Washington Post about Snowden's latest.
The NSA does not target Americans’ location data by design, but the agency acquires a substantial amount of information on the whereabouts of domestic cellphones “incidentally,” a legal term that connotes a foreseeable but not deliberate result.
One senior collection manager, speaking on condition of anonymity but with permission from the NSA, said “we are getting vast volumes” of location data from around the world by tapping into the cables that connect mobile networks globally and that serve U.S. cellphones as well as foreign ones. Additionally, data is often collected from the tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad with their cellphones every year.
In scale, scope and potential impact on privacy, the efforts to collect and analyze location data may be unsurpassed among the NSA surveillance programs that have been disclosed since June. Analysts can find cellphones anywhere in the world, retrace their movements and expose hidden relationships among individuals using them. ...WaPo
NSA admits that this is essentially a fishing expedition. It's another example of "because we can." The program used is called Co-Traveler, a phrase somewhat reminiscent of fishing expeditions during the McCarthy era. In this case, your cellphone, not currently being used, is still available to locate you in what you may have thought was a secure location.
CO-TRAVELER and related tools require the methodical collection and storage of location data on what amounts to a planetary scale. The government is tracking people from afar into confidential business meetings or personal visits to medical facilities, hotel rooms, private homes and other traditionally protected spaces. ...WaPo
NSA admits it has gathered more information than it can deal with. Next step: build more capacity. In the meantime, NSA has refused to provide any clue as to just how many Americans are being tracked. But it seems we don't have much legal protection.
An intelligence lawyer, speaking with his agency’s permission, said location data are obtained by methods “tuned to be looking outside the United States,” a formulation he repeated three times. When U.S. cellphone data are collected, he said, the data are not covered by the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures. ...WaPo
I guess that covers the territory until we find out the extent to which they've been lying this time... Apparently they also keep tabs on CIA operatives "secretly." Things are just beginning to get really interesting!
