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Sir Garlon writes:
According to the New York Times,
The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a legislative proposal for a far-reaching overhaul of the National Security Agency's once-secret bulk phone records program in a way that ... would end its systematic collection of data about Americans' calling habits. The bulk records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. And the N.S.A. could obtain specific records only with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order.
The Times' characterization of this as a "far-reaching overhaul" seems overstated, as the details of the proposal involve moving custody of the phone records from the NSA to the phone companies, and shortens retention time from five years to 18 months. The EPIC, ACLU, and EFF spokespersons quoted in the article reacted with guarded approval.
If submitted as planned, the bill would still need to pass the US House of Representatives and Senate.
According to EPIC, the NSA phone-records surveillance program is scheduled to end (in its current form) this Friday, though the Times article says President Obama plans to extend that deadline.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mendax on Wednesday March 26 2014, @12:39AM
I'll believe it when I see it.
As I understand the situation, Obama, the constitutional scholar, believes that the NSA program is constitutional but wants the NSA to stop what it's doing because of public outrage. But I have little confidence in Obama anymore (and I voted for the bastard).
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JeanCroix on Wednesday March 26 2014, @09:43AM
That's just the thing - we won't see it. By its very nature, all we can do is take their word for it. And I think it's apparent what their word is worth.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by davester666 on Wednesday March 26 2014, @01:37PM
believe me. we aren't getting a secret court to issue secret warrants that businesses which receive them can't tell anybody they received.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 26 2014, @09:50AM
I agree this is smoke and mirrors. It's giving the illusion of change while effecting no change at all. The only sign that they're serious about real change that matters is putting the heads of the NSA and CIA in prison, prosecuting everyone in the rank and file involved with torture and unconstitutional surveillance, severely cutting the funding to those agencies, and for all the schmucks in Congress supposedly providing oversight of the intelligence agencies to wind up on the street or in prison. Short of that, nope, sorry, they all deserve to burn.