The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
September 24, 2009

Report: Massive FBI Data-Mining Program Extends Beyond Terror Cases
-------------------------------------------------------------------



The technology magazine Wired has revealed the FBI has used a data
collection system intended for terrorism cases to gather information for
hacker and criminal investigations. The National Security Branch
Analysis Center, or NSAC, has collected more than 1.5 billion records
from private corporate databases. The information has been pulled from
major hotel chains, car rental companies and at least one national
department store. The FBI has steadily increased the NSAC’s operations
since 2004. It’s shared NSAC data with other government agencies,
including a Pentagon unit that spied on peace groups until its closure
last year.



.