90% Of NSA's Intercepted Messages Involve Ordinary People

In NSA-Intercepted Data, Those Not Targeted Far Outnumber The Foreigners Who Are -- Washington Post

Files provided by Snowden show extent to which ordinary Web users are caught in the net

Ordinary Internet users, American and non-American alike, far outnumber legally targeted foreigners in the communications intercepted by the National Security Agency from U.S. digital networks, according to a four-month investigation by The Washington Post.

Nine of 10 account holders found in a large cache of intercepted conversations, which former NSA contractor Edward Snowden provided in full to The Post, were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else.

Many of them were Americans. Nearly half of the surveillance files, a strikingly high proportion, contained names, e-mail addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents. NSA analysts masked, or “minimized,” more than 65,000 such references to protect Americans’ privacy, but The Post found nearly 900 additional e-mail addresses, unmasked in the files, that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or U.S.residents.

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More News On The Latest NSA Revelation From Edward Snowden

Nine out of 10 people monitored by NSA "ordinary internet users" -- The Telegraph
NSA monitored ordinary web-users' conversations NINE TIMES as much as legally targeted foreign internet accounts over four years, report claims -- Daily Mail
Most online accounts investigated by NSA belong to ordinary Internet users, report claims -- FOX News
Ordinary Americans Outnumber Foreigners in NSA Spy Sweep -- VOA
Officials Defend N.S.A. After New Privacy Details Are Reported -- New York Times
90% of People the NSA Spies on Are Not Real Targets, Report Says -- Mashable
Vast majority of docs collected by NSA come from ordinary internet users, not legal targets -- Verge
NSA gathered 'startlingly intimate' data on ordinary citizens, Snowden data reveals -- RT
Most Data Intercepted by NSA Is From Ordinary Internet Users Rather Than Actual Targets -- Slate
Americans' baby photos and resumes among NSA spy haul -- CNN
NSA trove shows 9:1 ratio of innocents to suspicious people in "targeted surveillance" -- Boing Boing
New Snowden leak: Of 160,000 intercepted messages, only 10% from offical targets -- Ars Technica