NSA Tracking 5 Billion Phones a Day: Knows Where You Go, When, How You Get There and Who You Meet With

NSA: Graffiti in Liverpool, England (Photo: erokism)

A new report in The Washington Post suggests that the National Security Agency (NSA) tracks roughly 5 billion mobile phones every day, a number that will do nothing to quiet the current fervor over the intelligence agency’s information-gathering practices.

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The Post drew a portion of its information from top-secret documents provided by Edward Snowden, a government whistleblower who once worked as a contractor for the NSA. It also interviewed U.S. intelligence officials, including an anonymous one who spoke with the permission of the NSA.

The NSA dumps those billions of phone records into a huge database, which data scientists and others can mine for a better understanding of targeted individuals’ relationships.

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