All US spy requests OK'd

Every single request by US g-men to carry out electronic surveillance in 2015 was approved by America's secret intelligence court.

The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is supposed to oversee and scrutinize spying operations, received 1,457 requests from the NSA and FBI to tap people's communications – and rubber-stamped every single one. This is according to documents from within the US Department of Justice.

This figure is slightly up from the 1,379 applications in 2014. None of those were rejected either.

Also in 2015, the FBI sent out 48,642 national security letters (NSL), which demand telcos and similar companies hand over personal information on their customers. These letters include a gagging clause that silences the organizations from revealing the snooping. Some 31,863 letters involved 2,053 foreigners. The remaining letters covered 3,746 US citizens and legal immigrants. ®