The secret documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate that the US' National Security Agency (NSA) routinely shares 'snoop-data' with Israel, which also includes data about American citizens.
The agency is said to hand over intercepted communication to its Israeli counterpart without sifting phone call data and emails of American citizens and the agreement between the two agencies places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis.
According to the Guardian, the agreement between the two agencies pertaining to the protection of US persons, repeatedly stresses the constitutional rights of Americans to privacy and the need for Israeli intelligence staff to respect these rights.
However, the agreement is undermined by the revelation that Israel is allowed to receive 'raw Sigint'-signal intelligence which includes a person's phone call data and other such metadata.
The revealed documents suggest that the raw data shared between the two agencies would not be filtered in advance by NSA analysts to remove US communications.
An NSA spokesperson admitted that the data about US citizens was included in the raw data shared with Israel but insisted that the shared intelligence complied with all rules governing privacy.
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By law, the NSA is required to target only non-US persons without an individual warrant, but it can collect the content and metadata of Americans' emails and calls without a warrant when such communication is with a foreign target.
The report further said that another secret document indicated an NSA official claiming that Israel aggressively spies on the US to learn their positions on Middle East problems.
Meanwhile, NSA denied to comment on the matter but said that whenever they share intelligence information, they comply with all applicable, including the rules to protect US person information, the report added.