[edcastro]

Article also states that the Brazilians are the most monitored nation in Latin America. Given that other countries in Latin America has showed far less "cooperative" with the US in the past, this took me by surprise. Maybe it's also oil related since the discovery of a humongous pre-salt layer[1] might be of interest to US?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-salt_layer

[rbanffy]

Petrobrás was a pioneer in deep sea oil extraction and obtaining whatever technologies they developed for that is a vital interest for oil dependent countries. Much like Canada spied on Embraer to further Bombardier's interests, I wouldn't be surprised to see the US doing the same. I would be surprised if they didn't.

What astonishes me is not that it's happening, but the sheer scale of the thing. I would find odd my mail being of interest, but why in hell would anyone be interested on what my mom exchanges with her friends?

[merraksh]

why in hell would anyone be interested on what my mom exchanges with her friends?

To ensure complete information collection, it would not be smart of any spying agency to only target "suspicious" email accounts, when a suspect could use their own mother's email to communicate to other suspects' mother's email.

Much like airport security does random searches instead of targeted searches (to only people with Middle Eastern features, for instance), randomizing probably helps. It helps even more to gather information from ALL email accounts.

[rbanffy]

Makes sense. Now I would understand why they intercept my mom's mail, but, then, why every friend of hers? I'm, sure there are people more than one degree away from anyone of interest.