NSA will stop looking at old phone records

“The telephony metadata preserved exclusively because of preservation obligations in pending civil litigation will not be used or accessed for any other goal, and, as soon as possible, NSA will destroy the Section 215 bulk telephony metadata upon expiration of its litigation preservation obligations”. The court said the June enactment of the NSA reform measure known as the USA Freedom Act allowed for a six-month “transition period” under which the NSA could continue its bulk collection.

“This application presents the question whether the recently-enacted USA Freedom Act, in amending Title V of FISA, ended the bulk collection of telephone metadata”. The program began shortly after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, but most of the records are purged every five years. The program came to light when former agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that millions of American’s calling records had been collected.

In early May, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the program wielded under that section “exceeds the scope” of what its lawmakers intended when the legislation was first passed. “The short answer is yes”, federal Judge Michael W. Mosman wrote in his opinion.

It shifts responsibility for storing the data to telephone companies, allowing authorities to access the information only with a warrant from a secret counterterror court that identifies a specific person or group of people suspected of terror ties.

The change in policy comes months after Congress renewed provisions of the Patriot Act that detail the legal framework for the government’s surveillance programs. After that, the historical data is off limits to the agency, or so we’re told.

In a karmic stroke, the NSA will also be required to preserve the bulk of its bulk telephony metadata as evidence in any civil lawsuits against itself. It’s now determined that access to that data will cease on November. 29.

Last week, the opposition Labor party called for a review of the legislation, despite helping pass the controversial law in March.

The new laws won’t necessarily bring an end to mass surveillance but will remove the NSA’s ability to consult historical data in investigations.

“The challenge for lawmakers is to strike the right balance… between privacy and security, between transparency and strength, and between the power of government and the rights of citizens”.