We have HUMINT, or human intelligence gathered from agents. We have SIGINT or signals intelligence. And now we have LOVEINT or NSA analysts occasionally reading the emails of ex-lovers. It doesn’t happen a lot, the NSA told the WSJ, but often enough that there is a word for it.I don't even think it's necessarily always being done with bad intentions. Who hasn't done an internet search on an ex-lover or even a long lost friend to see what happened to them? Which is not to say LOVEINT isn't a concern.
The difference with LOVEINT is they have so much information at their disposal and have the ability to cause trouble for an ex and/or the new love interest of a lost love. Beyond that, if they can check on old lovers, they can also stalk current enemies and that has a great potential to not end well.
The thing about domestic surveillance is it really has been going on as long as I remember. What makes it urgent now is technological advances have made it so easy for them to accumulate all the data about our lives. I don't think our government is using it to stalk us all 24/7 -- yet. I don't think they can yet but with the speed of new advances, it's only a matter of time before we could find ourselves living in a real life version of 1984.
I'd also guess this cyber-stalking is a lot bigger than "just a handful of rogue agents" since the ones they caught were mostly self-reported. And of course we now know they've been illicitly sharing their data scoops with law enforcement which was once forbidden under the Fourth Amendment. So the question is, how do we stop them? I'm not sure we can but I am sure we're never going to be able to even diminish it to keep it within some less invasive parameters as long as internet fights keep the focus of the story on the players and the politics instead of the policy.
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