NSA Admits Searching "3 Hops" From Suspects

New submitter cpitman writes "In a house hearing Wednesday the NSA admitted that it could query not only a suspect's records, but also perform up to a 'three hop query'. Considering that most people in the world are separated by under 6 degrees of separation, the NSA essentially claims that any single suspect gives them rights to investigate a large chunk of the world's population. With the terror watch list having over 700,000 names, just how many times has Kevin Bacon been investigated?"

Comments

Re:Can we discuss the fourth amendment now?

[cold fjord]

That is quite a rare insight you have, how did you ever come up with it? I hope you didn't bang you head on anything when the idea struck you. Does your insight account for the fact that the NSA wouldn't be especially interested in random food delivery services whose only function is to bring pizza or curry for pay? Do you think they are really interested in mapping the social arrangements of innocent Pizza Hut employees? The population of the world isn't organized into platoons, but the world's militaries tend to be. The worlds terrorist groups also tend to be organized as well. The NSA would be highly interested in identifying a terrorist chain of command, as well as any covert supply and funding channels. Did that occur to you? Didn't think so. You apparently see no purpose, just random activity.