If reports are to be believed and followed, the watchdog for the US government – The National Security Agency (NSA) had started a program known as MYSTIC way back in the 2009 year. As stated by a new Edward Snowden leak reveals more inside information on the NSA’s bulk data accumulation practices for intelligence operations. Reports published in the Washington Post says that NSA’s MYSTIC voice interception program started in 2009, with the support of the agency creating a tool called RETRO which has the ability to record and access 100% of all voice calls from a target country and can retain data for up to a period of thirty days.
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These calls can be recorded automatically and the data is stored for up to a month wherein the previous records get deleted when new recordings are added.
Unlike old programs that reportedly only be able to collect metadata, the program in controversy today captures the audio of every single call. Moreover, the National Security Agency makes no effort to out US-based calls that are obtained incidentally as an effect of the dragnet.
The MYSTIC system also captures the voice calls of American citizens in the targeted countries, as the National Security Agency apparently does not attempt to filter them out. Meanwhile, the National Security Agency said that its intelligence related activities operate within the law.