NSA Grapples With 988% Increase in Records Requests

[Indi Guy]

Source: USA Today

Fueled by the Edward Snowden scandal, more Americans than ever are asking the NSA if their personal life is being spied on.

And the NSA has a very direct answer for them: Tough luck, we're not telling you.

Americans are inundating the National Security Agency with open-records requests, leading to a 988% increase in such inquiries. Anyone asking is getting a standard pre-written letter saying the NSA can neither confirm nor deny that any information has been gathered.

"This was the largest spike we've ever had," said Pamela Phillips, the chief of the NSA Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act Office, which handles all records requests to the agency. "We've had requests from individuals who want any records we have on their phone calls, their phone numbers, their e-mail addresses, their IP addresses, anything like that."...



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/17/nsa-grapples-with-988-increase-in-open-records-requests/3519889/

[Demeter]

1. Keep on asking

Make them shuffle paper until they quit.

[Blue_Tires]

16. That just means the NSA will request (and get)

a budget increase for more resources so they can better 'process' the FOIA demands....

[Alamuti Lotus]

2. Land of the free

Hicks-"You are free (to do what we tell you)! You are free (to do what we tell you)!"

[idwiyo]

3. k&r

[delrem]

4. They aren't going to give bugger all.

They are totally protected, like the war-criminals of the G.W.B. admin.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. An agency out of control, with few checks, and fewer balances.

IMHO

[Conium]

6. A nation of laws?

In a nation of laws, even enforcers must follow the law. The FOIA is the law of the land.

[treestar]

7. How pathetic.

What kind of ego would a person have to have to think they were being spied on in their personal lives?

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Perhaps more a measure of paranoia

and no quicker way to draw scrutiny than to ask

[Javaman]

9. I completely agree!

because asking questions of our government is really dumb!

[treestar]

15. Not really a relevant response

Not jus tasking questions, asking it if it is spying on your personal life. I pretty much realize the government doesn't care. Only the IRS, which likely is the only agency with much information about ordinary Americans.

[Javaman]

19. Right you are, again!

because only the paranoid are the ones that are worried!

[cui bono]

12. I know!

I mean people still clinging to their constitutions and bills of rights. How sad.

[treestar]

14. Not really.

We're talking about people the government would have no interest in.

People affected are not likely to be ordinary Americans personal lives. It's too silly. The government does not care in the least who you are dating, etc. They don't care what you post on a place like DU. If they were really spying on anyone, it wouldn't be ordinary people, by definition.

Anyone ordinary who thinks they are being spied on is egomaniacal or crazy or pathetic. The only possible people who might be spied on would be big time drug dealers, people really suspected of terrorism - in fact an ordinary mosque goer might be somewhat justified. If they have a high profile there.

[Indi Guy]

18. "People affected are not likely to be ordinary Americans personal lives."

I hope you're not serious. We're all affected when our Constitution/rule of law is trashed.

Also, your statement sounds like the kind of denial that went on in WWII Germany. "Oh don't worry -- they're not coming after us (yet). Did I miss something? Doesn't the axiom still stand that absolute power corrupts absolutely?

[LanternWaste]

13. An ego almost as large as...

An ego almost as large as the individuals who like to hand down criticisms of others based on little more than hand-me-down Freudian bumper stickers.

[Earth_First]

17. Maybe they don't care what I'm posting on DemocraticUnderground...

Maybe they do.

Maybe as the result of my activities in which I have participated in outside of DemocraticUnderground have created a situation in which they are dragnetting the opinons I leave both here amd elsewhere as a result.

Having the legal right to know of such activites leaves an individual with paranoid convictions and an EGO taboot?!

SMH.

[randome]

20. Do suspects under investigation -say, human trafficking rings- have the right to know...

...if they are under investigation? Demanding that a government agency tasked with monitoring foreign communications reveal if they are investigating someone domestically seems like a fishing expedition designed to tie up resources.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[Indi Guy]

22. I'm not quite sure what point you're making here.

Are you saying that criminals are likely to ask the government if they're under investigation?

[KurtNYC]

10. I wonder how many of the requests are like these:

"Hey I just deleted a voicemail that I wanted to keep. Can you send me your copy?"

"I lost my old phone with all the phone numbers, can you guys just set-up my new one? You know the phone I bought yesterday."

"I think my spouse is cheating. Can you copy his/her meta-data and send it to me and my attorney?"

"My relative didn't come home last night. What GPS are you showing for his phone right now?"

[randome]

11. 'Grapples' means sending out canned responses?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

[On the Road]

21. It's Too Bad They Won't Release the Data

it's not likely any of the people requesting would be on the list.

[woo me with science]

23. Corporate fascism. nt

[Indi Guy]

25. Precisely.

It seems that nobody talks about the revolving door between government & big business anymore -- the interchange of execs & the cross-pollination of purpose.

[christx30]

24. So now we need another Snowden

to steal the information and release a serchable database so people can find out what is going on.