Spell check is apparently an unheard of concept at the FBI.
A new report shows that misspellings in documents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation led to the unwarranted surveillance of some Americans.
A report published Thursday by the Justice Department’s inspector general found that while the FBI has improved its overall handling of national security letters, there are still issues that “require additional effort and attention.”
The FBI’s national security letters permit the agency to collect telephone and Internet data of people believed to be tied to a national security investigation. But the identified issues shows that the FBI sometimes collects data on the wrong person because of routine clerical errors like spelling.
“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.”
The report looked at the national security letter program from 2007 to 2009. A copy of the report available to the public did not list exactly how many instances of unwarranted surveillance had taken place in that time frame.
