The US National Security Agency (NSA) widely monitors international payments and financial transactions, the latest revelations about the agency’s deep invasion of privacy show.
According to documents obtained from American whistleblower Edward Snowden by German magazine Der Spiegel, the NSA has set up its own financial database to track money flows through a “tailored access operations” division.
The documents show that the spying by NSA is conducted by a branch called “Follow the Money.” The collected information then flows into the NSA’s own financial databank, called “Tracfin,” which in 2011 contained 180 million records.
The NSA also targets the transactions of customers of large credit card companies like VISA for surveillance.
SWIFT, a network used by thousands of banks to send transaction information securely, was also named as a NSA target, according to the documents.
A US judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday called on the Obama administration to consider disclosing to the public the court™s classified opinions on NSA data collections.
Court documents have shown that the NSA violated privacy rules for years with improper surveillance practices.
The documents released over the past few months reveal a troubling picture of a super spy agency that has sought and won far-reaching surveillance powers to run complex domestic data collection without anyone having full technical understanding of the efforts.
The privacy violations were first revealed by Snowden in June. He leaked confidential information that showed the NSA collects data of phone records and Internet communication of American citizens.
AHT/AGB
Copyright: Press TV