NSA: We Monitor 1.6% Of All Internet Traffic

Do you believe them?

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Amid controversy surrounding national privacy matters, the NSA said they monitor only 1.6 percent of all Internet traffic (which is about 1,826 petabytes of information). In a report released by the Obama administation, the agency is portrayed in a positive light.  "If a standard basketball court represented the global communications environment, NSA's total collection would be represented by an area smaller than a dime on that basketball court," the memo said.

But as The Verge's Casey Newton points out, "...they avoid several key questions surrounding the spying, including which Internet companies are cooperating with them and how, why the government has demanded absolute secrecy from the companies they work with, and how the agency's oversight functions work."

The report was released in conjunction with President Obama's Friday press conference where he touched on creating more transparency with government surveillance matters. "To others around the world, I want to make clear, once again, that America is not interested in spying on ordinary people," Obama said. "Our intelligence is focused above all on finding the information that's necessary to protect our people, and in many cases, protect our allies."

Read the full report here.

[via The Verge]

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