Court: NSA can continue sweeping phone data collection
Court: NSA can continue sweeping phone data collection
By Brendan Sasso -
10/11/13 07:18 PM ET
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has granted
the National Security Agency (NSA) permission to continue its collection of
records on all U.S. phone calls.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence
announced the court's approval in a statement late Friday. The court authorizes
the program for only limited time periods and requires that the government
submit new requests every several months for re-authorization.
The existence of the bulk phone data collection was one
of the most controversial revelations from the leaks by Edward Snowden.
The NSA uses the program to collect records such as phone
numbers, call times and call durations on all U.S. phone calls—but not the
contents of any conversations, according to the administration.
The NSA collects the records from the phone companies and
compiles them in a massive database. NSA analysts are only allowed to search
the database if there is a "reasonable, articulable suspicion," that
a phone number is connected to terrorism.
Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper, said the office decided to announce the court
decision, which is usually kept secret, "in light of the significant and
continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection program."
Numerous lawmakers have expressed outrage at the NSA's
collection of records of millions of Americans who are not suspected of any
wrongdoing.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the original author
of the Patriot Act, are working on legislation that would prohibit the NSA from
conducting bulk data collection.
“While I appreciate the recent efforts by the Court and
the administration to be more transparent, it is clear that transparency alone
is not enough," Leahy said in an emailed statement. "There is growing
bipartisan consensus that the law itself needs to be changed in order to
restrict the ability of the government to collect the phone records of millions
of law-abiding Americans.”
—Updated at 9:34
p.m.
Read more:
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/328181-court-gives-nsa-permission-to-continue-massive-phone-data-collection#ixzz2hTZUinhp
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