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The US National Security Agency's massive surveillance activities revealed during the past months "threaten the entire world," an analyst says.

"This is an institution that is attempting to gather everything, everything and use it constantly and threaten the entire world," Sara Flounders, co-director at Intl. Action Center, told Press TV on Saturday.

"NSA spying was always unnecessary, but will it stop? This is happened above and beyond of any of these institutions," she added.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has leaked several documents since June, showing the scale of Washington's spying activities around the world.

NSA agents can find cellphones anywhere in the world, retrace their movements and expose hidden relationships among individuals using them.

In his year-end press conference on Friday, President Barack Obama conceded that mass collection of private data by the NSA may be unnecessary

"In light of the disclosures, it is clear that whatever benefits the configuration of this particular program may have, may be outweighed by the concerns that people have on its potential abuse," Obama said. "If it that's the case, there may be a better way of skinning the cat."

"There are ways we can do this potentially that give people greater assurance that there are checks and balances, sufficient oversight and transparency," Obama added.