In the four years since National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the lid off U.S. surveillance overseas, the number of targets the U.S. is monitoring around the globe has steadily increased.
Last year, U.S. intelligence agencies intercepted communications on 106,469 targets, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
That’s up from 89,138 targets in 2013, the year Snowden fled his intelligence post in Hawaii and began spilling secrets on the extent of surveillance activities. Snowden now lives in exile in Moscow, where Russia protects him from facing U.S. charges under the Espionage Act.
The data is contained in an annual Statistical Transparency Report, which offers details on how the government employs certain national security powers given to it by Congress.
By “targets,” the report says, it refers to individuals, groups or even foreign nations that use a particular telephone number or email address.
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