The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been keeping itself very busy collecting almost 200 million text messages everyday from around the world.
A Guardian report, based on the latest leaks by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, reveals that the stored data in the form of SMS messages are used to extract information related to location, contact networks and credit card details.
According to the leaked documents, the NSA program, codenamed Dishfire, collected "pretty much everything it can."
Another program known as "Prefer" conducted automated analysis on the un-targeted communications, the report added.
The Prefer program analyzed automated text messages to extract information such as contacts from missed call alerts, location details from roaming and travel alerts, financial information from bank alerts and names from electronic business cards. Furthermore, the targets of the program included even individuals under no suspicion of illegal activity.
In a statement given to BBC, NSA said the program stored "lawfully collected SMS data".
"The implication that NSA's collection is arbitrary and unconstrained is false," it added.
The leaked document also revealed that the NSA's UK counterpart GCHQ searched NSA database of "untargeted and unwarranted" communications belonging to UK citizens. However, GCHQ is not allowed to search through the contents of the messages of UK citizens without a proper warrant.
GCHQ has denied that it did anything illegal. "All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with the strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate and that there is rigorous oversight," GCHQ said.
The report added that the communications from US phone numbers were removed from the database but those of other countries - including UK - were retained.
The recent revelation that NSA is collecting and extracting personal information globally is likely to intensify the pressure on the U.S. President Barack Obama, who is set to give his response on the report of the NSA review panel on Friday.
