14 DAY TRIAL // In case anyone was wondering exactly what the NSA can do with the data it collects, here’s the answer. A new report indicates that, in 2010 and 2011, the agency conducted a secret pilot project to test the collection of bulk data about the location of cellphones belonging to US citizens.
The program was finally put on the back burner, intelligence officials claim, the New York Times reports.
The existence of the program was revealed along with a new batch of declassified documents from the NSA, although it was not publicly disclosed. The incident was outlined in a draft answer James Clapper had prepared to read to a hearing on Wednesday, should he be asked about the topic.
“In 2010 and 2011 N.S.A. received samples in order to test the ability of its systems to handle the data format, but that data was not used for any other purpose and was never available for intelligence analysis purposes,” Clapper’s draft answer reads.
Of course, the answer also includes a reference to the fact that the NSA would notify Congress and seek the approval of a secret surveillance court before any locational data was collected using Section 215.
However, since the NSA has already admitted to collecting metadata from US citizens under that very same act, that can already include the location of the participants to a conversation.
The experiment that stretched out over two years was supposed to test out how the locational data would flow into the NSA systems.
It remains unclear how many Americans’ locational data was collected by the intelligence agency or how it was actually put to use, since the NSA officials have made a habit out of giving half answers or lying to everyone, including the US Congress. Case in point, how Clapper’s answer draft mentions the agency would seek approval for collecting a type of data that it could already have access to.