Court rules NSA can't keep metadata longer than 5 years
Iran Press TV
Sat Mar 8, 2014 3:39PM GMT
A US federal judge with the secret surveillance court has refused the Obama administration's request to allow the National Security Agency to keep spying data longer than five years.
Judge Reggie Walton, the presiding judge of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) in Washington, ruled on Friday that the Justice Department's attempt to authorize the NSA to keep phone and internet records beyond the current five-year legal limit "is simply unpersuasive."
The government's request to hold the records indefinitely "would further infringe on the privacy interests of United States persons whose telephone records were acquired in vast numbers and retained by the government for five years to aid in national security investigations," Walton wrote.
The Department of Justice has argued before the FISA court that it needs to preserve the records for a longer period of time as evidence in several pending lawsuits over the bulk data collection program.
Among those suing the US government over the program's legality are the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican.
Earlier in January, US President Barack Obama offered a series of modest changes to the NSA's controversial surveillance practices, about seven months after spying leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sparked furor around the world.
However, civil liberties groups and human rights organizations argue that Obama has not gone far enough in reforming the agency's spying activities.
In January, Human Rights Watch said the US needs to stop gathering communications en masse and there was no proof that such vast surveillance had made a difference to security.
AHT/ARA
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