groovychk | FBI audit finds widespread abuse in data collection

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

FBI audit finds widespread abuse in data collection - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An internal FBI audit has found the agency violated rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data on domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The number of violations uncovered by the audit was far greater than those previously documented in a Justice Department report in March, the Post said.

The vast majority of newly discovered violations were instances in which telephone companies and Internet providers gave agents phone and e-mail records the agents did not request and were not authorized to collect, the Post said.

The agents retained the information in their files, which mostly concerned suspected terrorist or espionage activities, according to the report.

The new audit covers just 10 percent of the FBI’s national security investigations since 2002, so the actual number of violations in the FBI’s domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials told the newspaper in interviews.

The Justice Department audit found 22 violations in a much smaller sampling.

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It sure is a good thing that they’d never abuse that power they’ve taken.

Their own audit only got 22 violations. Hahaha. Who watches the watchers?