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In addition to phone records and email logs, the NationalSecurity Agency uses Facebook and other social media profiles to create maps of social connections -- including those of American citizens. The revelation was disclosed by the New York Times on Sunday, using documents provided to the newspaper by former government contractor Edward Snowden. But the documents do not specify how many Americans' social connections have been analyzed, or whether any have been implicated in wrongdoing. The surveillance began after a policy change in November 2010. Prior to then, the "chaining" of a foreign person's contacts had to stop when it reached an American citizen or legal resident.

The "metadata" from phone and email records in the database include details such as who a person called or e-mailed. A PowerPoint slide provided to the newspaper by Snowden shows how analysts use software to create diagrams of where a person was at certain times, their traveling companions, their social networks and email correspondents.