NSA Reform Advocates Refuse to Hand Data to FBI

Advocates for the eliminating the mass surveillance oppose a reform proposal of the White House to hand over a vast database of US phone records to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The proposal in question is just one of several options under internal consideration for reforming the NSA’s mass collection of phone data. All of those options are contested for varying reasons by spies, privacy groups, phone companies and lawmakers.

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican, claimed his stance to end bulk collection of innocent Americans’ data was unwavering. He pointed out that mass collection has never been authorized by Congress and he intended to stop that blatant abuse of the law.

In the meantime, Senator Ron Wyden, another opponent of mass surveillance, believes that ending ineffective collection which violates constitutional protections would add little or no unique value and therefore could be replaced by less intrusive methods.

Other options are to hand over the phone data to a private entity like the telephone company, or to some non-governmental custodian. Obama administration is also considering whether to require an expanded mandate for the companies to retain customer information beyond the point at which they now purge it.

A final option under consideration is to end the mass collection at all, leaving the National Security Agency to obtain phone data via a warrant based on individualized suspicion of connections to terrorism or espionage.

At the moment, privacy advocates consider the post-NSA surveillance choices under consideration weighted toward the status quo – or, in the FBI case, a step backward. They claim that the Bureau’s history of abusing the civil liberties of the US citizens is even longer than the NSA’s.

Some of the lawmakers are clearly opposing a shift in the mass collection away from the National Security Agency. The main congressional alternative, the USA Freedom Act, seeks to end the mass collection and suggests to require the government to obtain legal orders for information tied to specific suspicions of wrongdoing.

By the way, a few days ago the Justice Department formally requested that the FISA court permit the government to hold domestic phone information beyond the 5-year point at which the NSA is supposed to purge it. The administration claimed it needs the data for longer to respond to the lawsuits challenging the legality of the mass collection of such data.
 
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