Undaunted

The NSA has spent years collecting metadata – which includes the numbers dialed, number of calls received, time of call, duration of the call, and other information – from landline phones. Yet the agency has struggled to maintain pace with the explosion in cell phone usage, officials said.

One source told the Washington Post that in 2006 the NSA was collecting information on “closer to 100” percent of the calls made in the US, but by the summer of 2013 that number has decreased to less than 30 percent. The Wall Street Journal reported that the number is closer to “20 percent or less.”

The senior officials maintained that the NSA is working to restore its previous levels of data collection. They also said the agency will soon seek court orders to force phone companies that have managed to avoid the NSA’s gaze to begin providing information on its customers.

  RT