Anger over US spyware ‘that snoops on millions’

Barack Obama was today facing fresh anger over US spying.

New details emerged of a covert computer programme that allegedly lets intelligence officers search online chats and emails without authorisation.

National Security Agency documents obtained by The Guardian say the “XKeyscore” programme covers “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet” and is the most far-reaching tool the NSA has for obtaining intelligence information.

The newspaper’s report also says that the technology can let American spies trawl the browsing history of millions of people and that they can access all data covered by the programme by filling in a simple on-screen form.

US officials, who have repeatedly insisted that all intelligence gathering is carried out within the law, were today understood to be denying that the programme is being used to conduct any unauthorised spying.

President Obama’s administration has also stated that the personal data of American citizens is only targeted if a warrant is obtained under the country’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — and mounted a vigorous defence of US spying activities.

But today’s disclosures will fuel criticism of the reach of NSA data gathering, with the leaked papers disclosing that in 2012 at least 41 billion records were collected and stored by the XKeyscore programme in a 30-day period.

The new disclosure follows yesterday’s revelation in a US Congress hearing that the NSA is able to read and store the phone records of millions of Americans when investigating one suspected terrorist.

The testimony revealed that after identifying a suspect the agency, using a system known as “hop” or “chain” analysis, looks at the person’s phone records and all the people he calls, followed by everyone those people call — and so on in a spiral.

The effect means millions of records can soon be accessed.

NSA deputy director John Inglis said officials “try to be judicious” about conducting the analysis but both Democrat and Republican politicians have been expressing increased concern about the scale of the spying.