US spy agency NSA collected 500 million call records in 2017 – triple the number from 2016
Data collected under new surveillance system US lawmakers approved in 2015 that supposedly limits agency’s ability to collect records in bulk
The US National Security Agency collected more than 500 million phone call records of Americans last year, more than triple gathered in 2016, a US intelligence agency report released on Friday said.
The sharp increase to 534 million call records from 151 million occurred during the second full year of a new surveillance system established at the spy agency after US lawmakers passed a law in 2015 that sought to limit its ability to collect such records in bulk. The reason for the rapid increase was not clear.
The spike coincided with an increase reported on Friday across other surveillance methods, raising questions from some privacy advocates who are concerned about potential government overreach and intrusion into the lives of US citizens.
The tally was still far less than the estimated billions of records collected every day under the NSA’s old bulk surveillance system, which was exposed by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.
