National Security Agency.(AFP Photo / Paul J. Richards)

New documents have been leaked by The Guardian shining further light on the top-secret surveillance programs used by the NSA. According to their report, the National Security Agency can retain and use information obtained through domestic communications. According to the documents published by the newspaper on Thursday, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has approved a handful of policies that allow the National Security Agency to make use of intelligence on United States persons. President Barack Obama and his administration’s top intelligence chiefs have denied the NSA targets American citizens. The Guardian reports that the NSA can:

• Keep data that could potentially contain details of US persons for up to five years;

• Retain and make use of "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;

• Preserve "foreign intelligence information" contained within attorney-client communications;

• Access the content of communications gathered from "U.S. based machine[s]" or phone numbers in order to establish if targets are located in the US, for the purposes of ceasing further surveillance.