The US National Security Agency (NSA) reportedly tracks about five billion cellphone locations per day across the globe, according to the latest Snowden leaks.
NSA adds the gathered information to massive database that exposes the locations of ‘at least hundreds of millions of cell phones’ globally.
Citing Snowden leaks, the Washington Post revealed that the agency does not target US citizens’ location data intentionally, while ‘incidentally’ obtains a considerable amount of data on the location of local cellular devices.
One manager was cited by the publication as saying that the NSA obtained ‘vast volumes’ of location information by tapping into the cables hooking up mobile networks across the globe and that serve US cellphones plus foreign ones.
The agency used CO-TRAVELER analytic methods to filter through location data, while the location data was pulled in with the help of two anonymous corporate firms, the leaks added.
The NSA collected the mass information to make an effort to track known ‘intelligence targets’ and their unidentified acquaintances, the paper added.
