Sunday, November 29, 2015

NSA Has Shut Down Its Bulk Phone Surveillance Program



CNN: NSA ends bulk phone data collection

(CNN)The U.S. intelligence community on Sunday will cease its bulk collection of telephone metadata.

The government will move to a more "focused and targeted" approach in gathering intelligence, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement. The shift comes more than two years after details about the program were leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

President Barack Obama in June signed a reform measure that took away the National Security Agency's authority to collect in bulk the phone records of millions of Americans.

The USA Freedom Act requires the government obtain a targeted warrant or court order to collect phone metadata from telecommunications companies.

More News On The NSA Shutting Down Its Bulk Phone Surveillance Program

“Snowden Effect” in Action: NSA Authority to Collect Bulk Phone Metadata Expires -- The Intercept
NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records ends Sunday -- Washington Post
US Ends Bulk Telephone Data Program -- VOA
NSA bulk phone surveillance program shutting down Sunday -- The Hill
The NSA will no longer collect your metadata starting tonight -- Digital Trends
NSA to end phone-snooping, but asks for three-month extension to keep records -- Washington Times
The NSA Will Finally Stop Tracking Your Phone Calls (But They Can Still Spy On Your Social Media) -- Inverse
At 11:59pm EST on Saturday, the NSA will stop in-house phone metadata collection -- ARS Technica
NSA begins new phone surveillance program as bulk metadata collection ends -- RT
NSA Stops Phone Collection, But Agency Can Still Receive Your Call Records, Social Media Data -- IBTimes
The NSA's bulk metadata collection authority just expired. What now? -- The Guardian

4 comments:

Si-vis-pasen- said...

And the Easter Bunny is real ....

Unknown said...

Everybody can turn off their encryption now, we were just foolin around

Jay Farquharson said...

WNU Editor,

"both U.S. and non-U.S. persons.” In which case, this construction should be regarded as a huge success, because some in the press are reporting that the phone dragnet will shut down tomorrow night.

False.

Just a tiny corner of the phone dragnet will shut down, and the government will continue to collect “telephony metadata records in bulk … including records of both U.S. and non-U.S. persons” under EO 12333. Hypothetically, for every single international call that had been picked up under the Section 215 dragnet and more (at a minimum, because NSA collects phone records overseas with location information), a matching record has been and will continue to be collected overseas, under EO 12333.

They’re still collecting your phone records in bulk, not to mention collecting a great deal of your Internet records in bulk as well."

https://www.emptywheel.net/2015/11/27/the-government-wants-you-to-forget-it-will-still-collect-your-phone-records-in-bulk/#comments


RRH said...



This reminds me of an argument my Mother and I had about the Obamaphones. I was carrying on, pissing and moaning about it after a rough day at work.

She said: "Son, you just don't get it. Now none of them can use the excuse that they don't have a phone to take a call from a potential employer. More importantly, as long as they have that phone, they can't hide."