The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has ruled against a U.S. government request that it be allowed to hold telephone metadata beyond the current five-year limit as it may be required as evidence in civil lawsuits that question the data collection.. The American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. Senator Rand Paul and the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles are among those who have filed lawsuits challenging the phone records program, which came to light in June last year, after former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden, revealed that the agency was collecting bulk phone records of Verizon customers in the U.S. The link for this article located at IT World is no longer available. . A hidden tribunal rejected the FBI's plea to retain email logs beyond three years, influencing surveillance strategies.. Phone Records Retention, NSA Surveillance Impact, Civil Liberties Concerns. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Yesterday, we learned that the NSA received all calling records from Verizon customers for a three-month period starting in April. That's everything except the voice content: who called who, where they were, how long the call lasted -- for millions of people, both Americans and foreigners. . This "metadata" allows the government to track the movements of everyone during that period, and a build a detailed picture of who talks to whom. It's exactly the same data the Justice Department collected about AP journalists. The link for this article located at Schneier on Security is no longer available. . Surveillance data empowers authorities to monitor individuals' locations and establish relationships, igniting debates about personal privacy.. Metadata Analysis, Government Surveillance, Whistleblower Awareness. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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