NSA scoops up millions of text messages a day: report

January 17, 2014 04:59

The US National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million mobile phone text messages a day from around the world, a report has said, in the latest revelations from the Edward Snowden files.

The Guardian newspaper and Britain's Channel 4 News reported yesterday that the NSA used the messages to extract data on the location, contact networks and credit card details of mobile users.

British spies were given access by the NSA to search the collected "metadata" -- information about the text messages but not the actual contents -- of British citizens, according to the report.

The secret files say the programme, codenamed Dishfire, collects "pretty much everything it can", the Guardian and Channel 4 News reported.

Dishfire works by collecting and analysing automated text messages such as missed call alerts or texts sent to inform users about international roaming charges, the news organisations said.

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