It appears the NSA is not the only agency with data collection programs that are not widely known. Several officials (both current and former) confirmed the programs’ existence anonymously as the program is classified. From the New York Times:
The Central Intelligence Agency is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies like Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States — under the same law that the National Security Agency uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records, according to current and former government officials.
The C.I.A. financial records program, which the officials said was authorized by provisions in the Patriot Act and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, offers evidence that the extent of government data collection programs is not fully known and that the national debate over privacy and security may be incomplete.
Some details of the C.I.A. program were not clear. But it was confirmed by several current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is classified.
The data does not include purely domestic transfers or bank-to-bank transactions, several officials said. Another, while not acknowledging the program, suggested that the surveillance court had imposed rules withholding the identities of any Americans from the data the C.I.A. sees, requiring a tie to a terrorist organization before a search may be run, and mandating that the data be discarded after a certain number of years. The court has imposed several similar rules on the N.S.A. call logs program.
Several officials also said more than one other bulk collection program has yet to come to light.
“The intelligence community collects bulk data in a number of different ways under multiple authorities,” one intelligence official said.
While the financial data being collected in the program focused on Western Union, it makes one wonder how much financial data the CIA collects and shares with other agencies or its clients. They have claimed that they comply with regulations protecting consumers privacy, and with the Bank Secrecy Act:
“We collect consumer information to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws,” said the spokeswoman, Luella Chavez D’Angelo. “In doing so, we also protect our consumers’ privacy.”
But if the US government will go to Switzerland to find financial data which was protected under Swiss law legally, it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to be collecting such data domestically. What they will use the data for, is another story.
Further Reading
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/105826-wall-street-journal-cia-spying-on-americans-financial-data
