NSA analysts ’wilfully violated’ surveillance systems, agency admits
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/24/nsa-analysts-abused-surveillance-systems
The National Security Agency has admitted that some of its analysts deliberately abused its surveillance systems, with one analyst disciplined for using NSA resources to track a former spouse.
LOVEINT — Crooked Timber
▻http://crookedtimber.org/2013/08/24/loveint
All very reassuring, until you read the following
Most of the incidents, officials said, were self-reported. Such admissions can arise, for example, when an employee takes a polygraph tests as part of a renewal of a security clearance.
In other words, while NSA monitors everything you and I do all the time, it relies on witchcraft to detect wrongdoing by its own employees. I guess we’ll just have to hope that NSA staff are too busy snooping on our emails to read any of the 194 000 Google hits on “how to cheat a polygraph”.