Yesterday U.S. officials released new documents showing that the National Security Agency (NSA) may have unintentionally collected as many as 56,000 emails from Americans between 2008 and 2011.
None of the individuals targeted had any connection to terrorism, but rather the communications were swept up inadvertently alongside targeted materials. Private telecommunications providers like AT&T were involved in the data gathering.
Upon realizing the error and reporting it to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) in 2011, officials reportedly destroyed the data that had been collected.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified more than 100 pages of related documents in effort to be forthcoming about the NSA’s data collection.
“If we can inspire greater public confidence in these programs by being slightly more transparent, or by putting in place additional oversight measures, then we’re certainly willing to work with congress to implement those changes,” said Josh Earnest, deputy White House press secretary in a statement to reporters on Wednesday.
Siobhan Gorman is the intelligence correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. She joins The Takeaway to discuss the NSA’s release and whether it is a turning point for American privacy.Â
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