Former CIA director Michael Hayden admits that the rogue intelligence agency kills people based on metadata collected unconstitutionally\u00a0by snooping on US citizens\u2019\u00a0smartphones, smart TVs and other internet-enabled devices.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nThe comment by the former CIA and NSA director was made during a debate at Johns Hopkins University, after Georgetown University Law professor David Cole detailed the kind of information the government can obtain simply by collecting metadata (who you call, when you call them, how long the call lasts, and how often calls between the two parties are made.)<\/p>\n
Although NSA apologists\u00a0often claim such metadata collection is permissible considering the content of the call is not collected, Cole argued that is not the case, since the former general counsel of the NSA, Stewart Baker, has already stated metadata alone is more than enough to reveal vast amounts of an individual\u2019s personal information \u2013 and former CIA director Michael Hayden says the agency kills people based off metadata alone.<\/p>\n
Writing\u00a0in the New York Review of Books, Cole elaborated (you can also watch his explanation around the 14 minute mark of the embedded video):<\/p>\n