With great power comes great responsibility, but don’t tell that to the NSA agents who used the agency’s equipments to spy on their spouse or someone they have a crush on since high school. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the NSA actually admitted that some agents used NSA resources to spy for the purposes of love, which is called LOVEINT that stands for “love intelligence.” Luckily, the accused persons have been dealt with, though it is not certain if the victims were made aware of the problem.

Sometimes love makes a person do stupid things, however, with the “spy on the world” arsenal at the disposal of NSA agents, self-control is very important. One has to wonder, what if these agents were deliberately spying on strangers just for enjoyment? It gets clearer every day, that with the advancement of technology, we’re slowly losing our privacy in this world.

Snippet from the Wall Street Journal:

The LOVEINT violations involved overseas communications, officials said, such as spying on a partner or spouse. In each instance, the employee was punished either with an administrative action or termination.

[Senate intelligence committee chairperson Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.)] said “in most instances” the violations didn’t involve an American’s personal information. She added that she’s seen no evidence that any of the violations involved the use of NSA’s domestic surveillance infrastructure, which is governed by a law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

We have to admit, this is very creepy. No longer is it safe to sext with your partner or talk dirty over the phone, because there might just be this NSA guy on the other end getting off from your heated conversation.

[via WSJ, image via Photo Dictionary]