NSA spied on 35 world leaders according to leaked document

To people who knows nothing about "IT", it sounds like that anybody's mobile phone can be monitored, spied on, if needed.

Furthermore, if phone calls can be monitored, it also implies that not only US, but also many other countries can be doing the same thing.

To ordinary people, it only means privacy, but to others, it can mean industrial/governmental/political secrets.

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The document said that the numbers yielded little "reportable intelligence"

By John Ribeiro | Published: 04:22, 25 October 2013
The U.S. monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, according to a National Security Agency document provided by its former contractor, Edward Snowden, according to The Guardian newspaper.

The names of the world leaders is not disclosed in the document of 2006, and access to the 200 phone numbers of the leaders provided "little reportable intelligence," as the phones were apparently not used for sensitive discussions. The numbers, however, provided leads to other phone numbers that were subsequently targeted, according to the document.

The document is likely to add to concerns about NSA surveillance, including its monitoring of phones of political leaders. German officials said this week that U.S. intelligence agencies may have spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. There have also been reports that the U.S. hacked into the email server of Mexico's former president Felipe Calderon while he was in office, and also spied on Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.

A report in French newspaper Le Monde alleged that the NSA recorded data relating to over 70 million phone calls involving French citizens over a period of 30 days. U.S. Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper said the allegation that the NSA had collected recordings of French citizens' telephone data was false.

Alarmed at the developments, some countries are considering measures. Brazil has, for example, proposed in-country data storage requirements under an Internet bill before the country's Parliament.
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