Just how does the NSA piece together all that metadata it collects? Thanks to "newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials," the New York Times today shed light on how the agency plots out the social activity and connections of those it's spying on. Up until 2010, the NSA only traced and analyzed the metadata of emails and phone calls from foreigners, but anything from US Citizens in the chains would create stopgaps. Snowden-provided documents note the policy shifted around late in that year to allow for the inclusion of Americans' metadata in analysis. An NSA representative explained to the Times that, "all data queries must include a foreign intelligence justification, period."
