NSA Chief Denies Domestic Spying Story (2012)
<i>Yes. Does the NSA routinely intercept American citizens’ emails?<p>No.<p>Does the NSA intercept Americans’ cell phone conversations?<p>No.</i><p>It's worth noting that "intercept" has a very specific meaning here, which the Congressman asking the question nor the reporter may not have realized.<p>From <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/245228/the-fbi-collects-all-telephone-records" rel="nofollow">http://theweek.com/article/index/245228/the-fbi-collects-all...</a><p><i>A few definitions: to "collect" means to gather and store; to "analyze" means that a computer or human actually does something with the records; to "intercept" means that a computer or human actually listens to or records calls.</i><p>So it is possible that the NSA routinely collects telephone and/or email metadata and that the NSA does not routinely "intercept" citizen's email or cell-phone conversation (depending upon the meaning of "routinely" used), and that an answer of "No" to the latter is not a lie.<p>This article by the same author has more information on the program's specifics (<a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/245285/how-the-nsa-uses-your-telephone-records" rel="nofollow">http://theweek.com/article/index/245285/how-the-nsa-uses-you...</a>), as his sources have told him:<p><i>The NSA would insist that it does not actually "spy" on you until it gets a further order, if at all. In most all circumstances, the FBI, not the NSA, would actually listen to your conversations if a FISA order was acquired. So merely "collecting" the data is like receiving a box full of records but not opening it until and unless they had a good reason to do so.<p>That metaphor is not terribly comforting, but it does appear to be the government's justification for insisting that they don't actually, actively "spy" on you. It is true: If they only compile these transactional records and don't do anything with them, and they faithfully honor this distinction, then the scale of the actual surveillance is not necessarily harmful, although it feels heavy. That's a big if. It depends on whether you believe the NSA follows the rules.</i>