Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The FBI has unintentionally spied on Americans who were not the targets of investigations because of routine, avoidable mistakes, the National Journal reports.
The Justice Department’s inspector general discovered that the FBI sometimes collected data on the wrong people because of typographical errors.
“We found that the FBI’s corrective measures have not completely eliminated potential intelligence violations resulting from typographical errors in the identification of a telephone number, email address, or social security number in an NSL,” the report reads. “These typographical errors cause the FBI to request and, in some instances receive, the information of someone other than the intended target of the NSL.”
Despite those problems, the inspector general concluded that the FBI is doing a better job handling national security letters.
