Privacy group gives NSA spying thumbs-up

Reuters

EYES CLOSED: Anti-spying protesters outside the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

Endorsement of the NSA's internet surveillance programs by a bipartisan privacy board has deeply disappointed civil liberties activists while providing a measure of vindication for beleaguered US intelligence officials.

James Clapper, director of national intelligence, welcomed the conclusion by the independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board that the National Security Agency's internet spying on foreign targets in the US has been legal, effective and subject to rigorous oversight to protect the rights of Americans.

Activist groups panned the report as a dud.

It was a dizzying turnabout for a privacy board that in January drew criticism in the other direction for branding the NSA's collection of domestic calling records unconstitutional.

As they unanimously adopted their 190-page report, the five board members - all appointed by President Barack Obama - sought to explain their largely favourable conclusions about surveillance programs that have provoked worldwide outrage since former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden revealed them last year.

At issue is a spying regime, first definitively disclosed in Snowden documents last year, under which the NSA is using court orders to obtain foreign customers' emails, chats, videos and texts from Google, Facebook and other US tech companies under a program known as PRISM. The documents also showed that the agency is intercepting foreign data as it transits fiber optic lines in the US

Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google and LinkedIn declined to comment.

The reputations of American technology companies have suffered abroad over the perception that they cannot protect customer data from US spy agencies. Last week, the German government said it would end a contract with Verizon over concerns about network security.

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Privacy group gives NSA spying thumbs-up