Social networking sites contain a lot of information about each of us, depending on what we choose to share online. The NSA could not leave this fact unexploited.
According to a recent New York Times, based on files provided by Snowden, the US secret service exploits all personal information coming from social networks, thus creating a large collection of metadata and complex graphs of social ties for their espionage purposes.
This practice has been going on for a long time, and it doesn't just target foreigners. In November 2010, NSA officials gave the green light to apply the same practice to data originating from Americans.
This shift in spy policy was intended to help the agency “discover and monitor” connections between foreign targets and U.S. citizens, according to a document released in January 2011.
The list of sources used by the service includes Facebook profiles, insurance information, bank codes, GPS location information, property records, political beliefs and convictions, tax information, essentially creating a complex profile for each of their targets.
The NSA is ultimately collecting data from Americans, something it has denied since the leaks about its actions began. Of course, it was expected that it would deny it, what could it say anyway?
