As Obama tightens surveillance guidelines, uncertainty lingers on NSA program

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a series of modest steps to strengthen privacy protections for Americans and foreigners in U.S. intelligence-gathering, including an end to the indefinite gag order on certain subpoenas issued to companies for customers personal data.

At the same time, U.S. intelligence officials said they were still hoping to fulfill a goal President Obama set a year ago: ending the National Security Agencys collection of millions of Americans phone records.

It was the revelation of that NSA program in June 2013 by former agency contractor Edward Snowden that set off a controversy over the scope of the governments surveillance powers and that led Obama in a speech last year to announce a number of reforms to intelligence-gathering practices.

The centerpiece of that speech was his call for an end to NSAs bulk phone records collection, with the aim of devising an alternative approach that would preserve the agencys access to the data for counterterrorism purposes. But Congress last year failed to pass legislation to achieve that.

The underlying authority for the collection will expire June 1. The administration fears the expiration would end not only the program but also the FBIs ability to obtain a broad range of information on a standard much lower than probable cause.

While privacy advocates believe the White House could unilaterally end the NSA program, administration officials are calling on Congress to pass legislation to do so.

Im hopeful that in the four months we have until this expires, well be able to get legislation passed, Robert S. Litt, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said in a phone call with reporters. Officials are not yet making contingency plans in the event it doesnt, he said.

The steps announced Tuesday by the administration are aimed at increasing transparency and privacy in an effort to rebuild public trust that was eroded in the wake of the Snowden disclosures. At the same time, Litt said, officials want to maintain operational capabilities needed to protect the nation and its allies.

Under the new measures, the FBI will lift indefinite gag orders on companies that receive administrative subpoenas, known as national security letters. NSLs are issued by a senior law enforcement official without a judges sign-off and require the recipient to turn over data such as a customers credit-card transactions, billing records and data on when and to whom an e-mail was sent or a phone call made. The gag order will now be dropped after three years or when an investigation ends, whichever comes first.

The three-year limit on NSL gag orders is a significant concession by the FBI, but it does not meet the constitutional standard, said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology. Instead, the FBI should have to go to court and prove a likelihood of harm if disclosure was allowed from the start.

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As Obama tightens surveillance guidelines, uncertainty lingers on NSA program