In 2006 , the Office of Oversight and Compliance within NSA 's Signals Intelligence Directorate informed NSA OIG that , between 2005 and 2006 the subject had without authorization queried in two SIGINT systems the telephone numbers of two foreign nationals , one of whom as his girlfriend . On one occasion , the subject performed a text query of his own name in a SIGINT system . The OIG investigation found that the subject queried his girlfriend 's telephone number on many occasions and her name on two . He testified that he received only one " hit " from the queries on the girlfriend . Another number he queried , that of a foreign national language instructor , returned " insignificant information " . The subject claimed that he queried his name to see if anyone was discussing his travel and the telephone numbers to ensure that there were no security problems . ;