14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like India was another country on the NSA’s top priority list, new leaks indicate. According to The Hindu, who cites top secret documents from Edward Snowden, India was one of NSA’s targets that got a lot of attention.
It was long ago revealed that the NSA had its eyes on emerging nations forming BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
While a lot has already been exposed about the NSA interest in Brazil, India hasn’t been mentioned in news articles related to the US snooping.
The documents The Hindu refer to indicate India was actually number five in the list of countries the NSA was interested in, plucking out billions of communications from telephone and Internet activity each month. Some 13.5 billion pieces of information were collected in the timeframe of a single month, namely March 2013.
The “global heat maps” included in the documents give countries color codes based on how extensively they were being targeted by the NSA. India was only preceded by Iran, Pakistan, Jordan and Egypt.
It seems the NSA used two major programs to collect data, including Boundless Informant and PRISM. The first was used to monitor phone calls and access to the Internet in India, while PRISM gathered information through various tech giants in the United States.
“The U.S. government will respond through diplomatic channels to our partners and allies. While we are not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity, as a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations. We value our cooperation with all countries on issues of mutual concern,” an NSA spokesperson told the newspaper when asked for comment.