‘Massive storage of metadata telephone data Americans yielded almost nothing’

The four-year massive storage of phone call metadata that Americans have made has ultimately yielded virtually nothing. This is according to a report by a government agency about the project of the NSA intelligence service.

As a result of information from the massive storage of phone call metadata, only one investigation has been launched by another intelligence agency. That writes The New York Times following a report by a government agency that went to the US Congress. On another occasion, the program also provided useful information, but in the end it did not lead to an investigation. All other times, intelligence agencies only got information they already had.

The NSA stopped collecting the metadata last year. Even then, the intelligence service said that the data collection cost too much money and provided too little useful information. In total, the project cost $100 million, reports The New York Times.

NSA kept metadata of phone calls from Americans for four years. The intention is to amend the law later this year to make data collection no longer possible. The government agency’s report is not public.