Originally Posted by
Narwal
If a person is incidentally captured by the NSA, and the data is then put away and not used, it's incidental data. If someone then pulls that incidental data out from the backroom and starts using it against someone, you're spying on them. Sure, the method of the data collected is incidental, but if you use the data, you're then spying on them. In this case, data collected incidentally, was then used in intelligence reports, with the names exposed. This means someone "ordered" the security apparatus to get and use the incidental data on someone specifically (because the names were exposed, something a higher up has to order), thus becoming spying.