The New York Times reports that the NSA has been using public social media data to figure out who associates with whom (both in person and digitally) and where social media users are located. This surveillance began in November 2010 after the NSA began allowing the analysis of phone calls and email logins, according to the report. On Oct. 14, The Washington Post broke the story that the NSA has also been gathering users' e-mail and chat address books to help fill in information about social networks.
Why is this important? The NSA says the information gathering has "foreign intelligence purposes" and is only conducted outside US borders. However, some critics see this as a mere technicality.
