14 DAY TRIAL // Officials from India and America keep denying that any content was taken from the Indian Internet and telephone networks by the NSA, but documents indicate the exact opposite.
According to The Hindu, who cites leaked documents from Edward Snowden, NSA’s PRISM program was used to gather key information from the country by tapping directly into the servers of tech giants with headquarters in the United States.
Furthermore, the documents reveal that little of the communication targeted by the NSA had any connection to terrorism, but rather with domestic politics, as well as strategic and commercial interests – nuclear and space.
The NSA document called “A Week in the Life of PRISM reporting” covers the period between February 2 and 8 this year. Companies and services such as Gmail, Facebook, MSN, Hotmail, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Apple, Skype and AOL are marked on the document.
In a section titled “India,” The Hindu reports, the document mentions several subjects regarding the content the agency was targeting. Communications of people involved in politics, space and nuclear programs were being collected, including emails, texts and phone records.
In another report, India was marked as one of the NSA’s top targets when it comes to collected records. Placing it on the fifth place, some 13.5 billion records were gathered from India in a single month.
Officially, such claims have been dismissed by both US and Indian authorities. However, in private, the story stands a little differently.
“If Americans are listening to our politicians and tapping the phones or reading mails of individuals who handle nuclear and space programs, they have huge advantage over us in all business and diplomatic negotiations. Even before we go to the table, they know what we are going to put on it. It’s not just violation of our sovereignty, it’s a complete intrusion into our decision-making process,” The Hindu quotes a senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs, who remains anonymous.
It’s been mentioned that the reports have actually “rattled” the government.