Well this is a confidence booster in the ability of the powers-that-be to "keep us safe" (and accidentally intrude on an uncounted number of innocent lives along the way):
The FBI unintentionally spied on the communications data of some Americans who were not targets of investigations because of typographical errors, according to a government watchdog.
The Justice Department's inspector general concluded in a report Thursday that the FBI has improved its overall handling of national security letters, which permit the agency to collect telephone and Internet data of suspects believed to be tied to a national security investigation.
But the inspector general identified a number of areas that "require additional effort and attention," such as a tendency to collect data on the wrong person because of routine mistakes.
"We found that the FBI's corrective measures have not completely eliminated potential intelligence violations resulting from typographical errors in the identification of a telephone number, email address, or social security number in an NSL," the report reads. "These typographical errors cause the FBI to request and, in some instances receive, the information of someone other than the intended target of the NSL."
You'd think there would have to be some sort of corroborating evidence or multiple sources of information that could be cross-checked before someone could end up under an extreme regime of scrutiny like this, a process where an error like a simple typo would be weeded out before it got to the stage of having all your communications scrutinized for purposes of national security.
But if you think that, of course you'd be wrong.
And apparently no heads will roll over it either. Like a kindly teacher wagging a finger at a student who's not really been doing his best, all the Justice Department report can muster in the way of condemnation at such careless invasions of privacy is to say that catching these routine mistakes will "require additional effort and attention." As if it deserves a B instead of an F.