Mass surveillance

Days before Trump takes office, Obama expands surveillance powers

Despite pleas from privacy groups to rein in the US government's surveillance powers before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the Obama administration has done the opposite.

The outgoing government will now allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to share raw globally intercepted personal data with the government's other intelligence agencies.

That means more than a dozen of the government's other spy agencies -- such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) -- will be able to filter through raw data intercepted and collected from foreign networks and satellite transmission, including phone calls, emails, and other personal data, as reported by The New York Times.

It's said that the rule changes will make it easier for the government to spot and prevent potential terrorist attacks before they happen, at the expense of the privacy of millions of Americans, whose data may be collected in the surveillance dragnet.