The National Security Agency’s surveillance network has the ability right now to keep tabs on 75 percent of all U.S. Internet traffic, The Wall Street Journal reports. The NSA is supposed to be using that ability to search out intelligence on the ‘bad guys’ by grabbing the communications of foreigners and Americans. The WSJ interviewed current and former intelligence and government officials and people from companies that help build or operate the systems, or provide data. After those interviews, they say that the written content of emails sent between citizens within the U.S. and domestic phone calls made with Internet technology were captured. The system works by using algorithms that act as filters to flag the crucial stuff for a human to then look at closer. An NSA spokeswoman told the Journal that its actions were both legal and respectful of Americans’ privacy.
