NSA Analysts Use Surveillance for Cyberstalking Crushes
The cute practice is called "LoveINT"
Of all the revelations about how the National Security Agency collects, sorts, filters, reviews and catalogs the personal information of Internet users, none have been as downright creepy as what the Wall Street Journal reported last Friday.
Some NSA agents have been caught using the government's super-spy computers to check out love interests and crushes. In fact, it happens so often that the agency has a code name, "LoveINT," for it – which apparently stands for "Love Intelligence."
Think of it as Facebook stalking meets online dating meets every peepin' Tom's fantasy.
According to the Wall Street Journal, one official said the practice "isn't frequent" and estimated there have only been a handful of cases in the last decade. But keep in mind that this is an agency that lied about willfully violating its own rules regarding Americans' privacy nearly 3,000 times since 2008.
