The NSA Gathers Almost 200 Million Texts Every Day

The NSA collects nearly 200 million text messages per day through a secret program called Dishfire, according to a new report in The Guardian. The agency described the collected messages as a "goldmine to exploit" for all kinds of personal data.

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the dragnet message collection program. The NSA uses these messages to extract the senders' and recipients' personal data such as location information, financial activity and contact details, according to the report published Thursday.