New York Times: Wiretaps on Americans dug deeper than originally disclosed by FBI
Records obtained by the New York Times show that the FBI not only demanded information on American individuals from telecommunications providers in "national security letters," but also expected information on people their subjects associated with, called one's "community of interest." The practice was recently discontinued.
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EXCERPTS:
The community of interest data sought by the FBI is central to a data-mining technique intelligence officials call "link analysis." Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, American counterterrorism officials have turned more frequently to the technique, using communications patterns and other data to identify suspects who may not have any other known links to extremists.
The concept has strong government proponents who see it as a vital tool in predicting and preventing attacks, and it is also thought to have helped the National Security Agency identify targets for its domestic eavesdropping program. But privacy advocates, civil rights leaders and even some counterterrorism officials warn that link analysis can be misused to establish tenuous links to people who have no real connection to terrorism but may be drawn into an investigation nonetheless.
Typically, community of interest data might include an analysis of which people the targets called most frequently, how long they generally talked and at what times of day, sudden fluctuations in activity, geographic regions that were called, and other data, law enforcement and industry officials said.
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The entire New York Times article can be read HERE.
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