The NSA is temporarily restarting bulk collection of call records

[n2doc]

When Congress stalled out on Sunday, surveillance reformers scored a symbolic but tangible victory. Without legal authorization, the NSA was forced to shut down bulk collection just before 8PM that night. Now, with the USA Freedom Act signed into law, assuring the eventual shutdown of the program, it's unexpectedly coming back online.

The Guardian is reporting that, after the brief hiatus imposed by Congress, the NSA is gearing up to bring the call records collection system back online. It's possible because of a provision in the USA Freedom Act which gives the agency six months before it needs to get rid of the program entirely. The bill was drafted with the assumption that USA Freedom would pass before the Patriot Act expired, so the six-month extension was included to give the NSA time to prepare. No one expected that, having shut down the program in the interim, the NSA would use that provision as an excuse to start it up again.

The restarted collection is only temporary. The NSA is still legally obligated to shut down the program in December, and it's unlikely that Congress or the president will do anything to extend that deadline. Still, it's a reminder of how committed the NSA is to sustaining the program, even temporarily, and how difficult a road reformers face trying to get the agency to give up more powerful programs like web metadata collection or PRISM.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/3/8725269/nsa-call-records-bulk-collection-usa-freedom-act

Temporarily?

[grasswire]

1. too big to be regulated

Another example of who is really in charge

[randome]

2. PRISM is just a GUI for analyzing information provided by Internet companies.

Stopping the NSA from using software is just...stupid.

Stopping the metadata collection -eventually- is more of the same since the NSA will coordinate with all the telecom companies to enable real-time searches of their data when they have a warrant.

This makes the entire process subject to hacking and interception and more easily prone to telecom employee malfeasance so I don't see it as a better alternative.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]TECT in the name of the Representative approves of this post.[/center][/font][hr]

[A Simple Game]

10. While all of your post was funny, the last part was especially hillarious.

This makes the entire process subject to hacking and interception and more easily prone to telecom employee malfeasance so I don't see it as a better alternative.

Exactly we can't have anyone hacking and intercepting the data we are already hacking and intercepting. We can't let anyone else trample on the rights of the people we are trampling on the rights of.

[randome]

11. Storing the metadata in a black box system is better than real-time access.

It makes sense to have the metadata available. If a terrorist attack occurred, don't you think it would make sense to see what other phone numbers the suspects were calling?

And if the metadata can't be accessed without a warrant, that's not a bad system. It's like storing store receipts in case of an emergency recall.

Always absent -of course- evidence of abuse. And Snowden has not shown that.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[A Simple Game]

12. Some of us would say that Snowden showed the abuse and that the courts agree that

the mass collection of data is illegal. It should be hard to say that what Snowden did himself was not abuse of the system.

As for other examples of abuse there are examples out there you could do a search for them. Below is just one article to get you started.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/08/23/bloomberg_report_nsa_employees_have_deliberately_abused_their_power.html
There are many more examples of abuse.

[randome]

14. Every large organization has examples of abuse.

If the NSA discovers it, admits to it and punishes those responsible, they're behaving like any other law enforcement agency.

What I meant is evidence of system-wide abuse. You could even say that Snowden abused his position to steal documents and flee the country. But he has shown nothing that reveals the NSA is using data to deliberately spy on American citizens.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game. -Existenz[/center][/font][hr]

[rhett o rick]

3. The NSA/CIA Black State rules. No one has the power to shut them down. nm

[hughee99]

4. I thought the word "restarting" was just as funny as "temporarily"

It implies that it ever stopped.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. "No one expected the Spanish Inquisition"

No one expected that, having shut down the program in the interim, the NSA would use that provision as an excuse to start it up again.

I fully expect the National Spy Agency to do anything and everything it can do to continue mass surveillance.
dunno why "no one" was surprised.

[dickthegrouch]

15. DUzy alert /nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Next: The CIA is temporarily restarting torture..er...enhanced interrogation.

[malthaussen]

7. Does anyone really believe they "stopped," anyway?

Passing a law doesn't stop anything. Maybe they had some people take a cosmetic break to score some points.

-- Mal

[Octafish]

8. The glitch came during turnover from government to the private sector.

USA PATRIOT Act expired to be replaced by USA FREEDOM Act.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. My insider sources put up this food for thought.

Some in the CIA are really good patriots as we know... there are whistle blowers.
and Snowden was asked to go to Boz Allen to expose them is the reason he left the CIA .
Some in the CIA thought the private sector was taking over.

Like I said....... food for thought.

[lark]

9. Obama left all the Bush implants in place.

Of course they'd continue to do this. Sadly, Obama also supports this invasion of privacy.

[dickthegrouch]

16. I'm so disappointed that the constitutional scholar isn't

Why so many are incapable of understanding that 300,000,000 warrants need to be signed is beyond me.
Sure it's tedious and probably would give one a bad case of carpal tunnel, but it's the law.

I want to see a discovery request for the Judge's signature on the search warrant or else the State has no standing to bring any case, AND ALL the evidence illegally gathered is tossed. That's the law.