Whenever they’re not combing through troves of metadata snatched from fiber optic cables across the globe, National Security Agency analysts are apparently tapping the phones of their significant others and keeping tabs on their love interests, or “loveint” in NSA speak.
In a letter posted to Senator Charles Grassley on Sept. 11, the NSA’s Inspector General George Ellard provided a dozen “substantial instances” when agency employees were caught gathering intelligence on spouses, partners or flames.
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According to the letter, one NSA employee in 2011 admitted to tapping his own home and girlfriend’s phone in 2004 “out of curiosity,” while another member of the agency was caught illegally reading the emails of six people, including his girlfriend, on the first day he was given the green light to use eavesdropping technology.