NSA Struggles to Make Sense of Flood of Surveillance Data - WSJ.com

A stark surveillance snapshot

""What they are doing is making themselves dysfunctional by taking all this data," Mr. Binney said at a privacy conference here.
The agency is drowning in useless data, which harms its ability to conduct legitimate surveillance, claims Mr. Binney, who rose to the civilian equivalent of a general during more than 30 years at the NSA before retiring in 2001. Analysts are swamped with so much information that they can't do their jobs effectively, and the enormous stockpile is an irresistible temptation for misuse."

NSA Struggles to Make Sense of Flood of Surveillance Data - WSJ.com