The latest document leaks from Edward Snowden show the National Security Agency is targeting international financial transactions involving customers of major credit card companies, including Visa. According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, the NSA’s financial records database, Tracfin, housed 180 million records in 2011. The records included data from a Brussels-based network used by thousands of banks to securely send information on transactions. One document shows the NSA’s British counterpart, GCHQ, expressed concerns about the bulk collection of financial data, which it said contained “rich personal information,” much of it “not about our targets.”
Report: NSA Spying on Financial Transactions
HeadlineSep 17, 2013