NSA's overseas surveillance 'targeted' not 'bulk collection', claim US officials

US officials have reportedly claimed that the National Security Agency's (NSA) overseas surveillance programmes are not 'bulk collection,' but 'targeted and narrow'.

After reports emerged from the controversial NSA leaks, it was found that the US spy agency was capable of snooping on a country's entire phone communications.

However, NSA's foreign surveillance programs authorized by section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act have the participation of those vendors, PC World reports.

NSA's general counsel, Rajesh De said that the Internet service providers and other technology companies would have received legal process documents when the NSA wanted to conduct surveillance on their customers.

He further revealed that the NSA collects communications to and from certain email and telephone targets, with assistance from communications providers, and it also engages in upstream collection from the "Internet backbone."

General Counsel in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Robert Litt, reiterated that overseas surveillance isn't bulk collection, but targeted.

Litt called the overseas surveillance programs important for US national security, adding that it was one of the most valuable collection tools that they have, and most important sources of information, not only about terrorism, but about a wide variety of other threats to the nation, the report added.