NSA claims its huge datacentre won't snoop on US citizens' email

It's for 'cyber security' instead

By Lawrence Latif
Tue Apr 16 2013, 12:15

THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY (NSA) has denied that a huge Utah datacentre will be used to monitor US citizens' email.

The NSA is building a $1.2bn datacentre in Utah that the organisation claimed is the largest defence construction project in the country since the Pentagon was built, or at least the largest it would publicly disclose.

Following a report that suggested the NSA's Utah datacentre might be used to trawl through the emails of US citizens, the NSA said its new datacentre will not be used for such activities.

Generally US authorities need to obtain a warrant before peeking at any US citizen's email. The NSA said it is "unwavering" in its respect for US laws and US citizens' civil liberties, a statement that might raise the eyebrows of some Americans.

The NSA said in a statement, "Many unfounded allegations have been made about the planned activities of the Utah Data Center. One of the biggest misconceptions about NSA is that we are unlawfully listening in on, or reading emails of, US citizens. This is simply not the case." Instead the NSA said the datacentre will be used to provide cyber security services.

The NSA tried to deflect attention from the snooping allegations by claiming that building the datacentre has created somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 jobs, with 100 to 200 permanent jobs to keep the facility ticking over.

The NSA's Utah datacentre is scheduled to be completed in September.
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