NSA admits analysts purposefully violated citizens' privacy rights

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National Security Agency officials deliberately overstepped their legal authority multiple times in the past decade, the agency acknowledged.

"Over the past decade, very rare instances of willful violations of NSA’s authorities have been found, but none under [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] or the Patriot Act," the agency said in a statement. The admission contradicts previous statements by lawmakers and the Obama administration that any privacy violations were unintentional, based on things like technical glitches. The admission comes days after the government released a 2011 court opinion that concluded that the NSA had unconstitutionally collected about 56,000 emails of Americans over a three-year period.


NSA admits analysts purposefully violated citizens' privacy rights