The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has authorized a 90-day extension to the Section 215 bulk telephone collection program used by the National Security Agency, giving the agency through the end of February to run the program in the absence of legislation establishing a new authority.. Several months ago, President Barack Obama ordered an end to the Section 215 collection, as it had been carried out for years, saying that the government should no longer hold the untold millions of phone records collected under the program. Instead, rather than the government periodically collecting and storing those records, the phone companies would instead keep control of the data and the NSA would have the ability to query them under specific limitations. The link for this article located at ThreatPost is no longer available. . The FISC granted a 90-day prolongation for Section 215, enabling the NSA to persist with mass data collection in the absence of fresh laws.. Surveillance Authority, NSA Program, Privacy Legislation, Bulk Collection. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
A report Thursday by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) calling the National Security Agency's bulk phone records collection program illegal and mostly useless puts the Obama Administration in an awkward spot. . Less than a week ago, President Obama had described the program as vital to the NSA's anti-terror effort. In a speech announcing modest changes to the program, the President had acknowledged privacy and civil rights concerns that have been raised over the collection of phone metadata records on U.S. residents. The link for this article located at Network World is no longer available. . A report reveals the NSA's phone records program as unlawful, challenging President Obama on privacy issues ahead.. NSA Privacy, Civil Liberties, Surveillance Program, Metadata Collection, Government Oversight. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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