New documents reveal that a top secret US National Security Agency (NSA) is using a secret surveillance system to collect data on nearly all online activities of a typical internet user with no prior authorization.
The secret program, called XKeyscore, enables NSA employees to snoop on huge databases which contain emails and chats in social media like Facebook.
The program allows NSA analysts to search personal data of millions of internet users including their name, telephone number, IP addresses, keywords, the type of browser they used, websites they surfed and the even language with which they conducted internet activity.
The revealed documents describe the program as “widest reaching” system which can gather intelligence form computer networks.
In addition, NSA agents can also use the surveillance tool to monitor ongoing interception of an individual’s internet activity in Å“real time”.
The documents, published by the Guardian, are leaked by the fugitive American whistleblower Edward Snowden.
NSA employees are simply required to fill out an on-screen form which is not reviewed by a court before targeting on line activities of their fellow citizens.
Snowdenâ„¢s new revelations are in line with his statement in June. The leaker claimed in an interview with the Guardian on June 10 that an NSA agent could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president.”
The US government has vehemently denied using any program which allows it to spy on its citizens.
The White House has been under domestic and foreign pressure over its revealed mass spying program which has been targeting both its own citizens and other nationals worldwide.
DT/DT
Republished from: Press TV