The Patriot Post® · NSA Grabs Contacts & 'Buddy Lists'

The NSA is collecting contact lists from personal email and instant messaging accounts all over the world, and Americans are once again included in the dragnet. The Washington Post reports, “The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and ‘buddy lists’ from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on, composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device with information stored on remote servers.” The stated goal is once again collecting the haystack to look for the needle, and they swear, “We are not interested in personal information about ordinary Americans.”