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Obama Calls for Overhaul of N.S.A.’s Phone Data Collection Program Obama Calls for Overhaul of N.S.A.’s Phone Data Collection Program
(35 minutes later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that he would require intelligence agencies to obtain permission from a secret court before tapping into a vast trove of telephone data, but he will leave the data in the hands of the government for now. WASHINGTON — President Obama, responding to a clamorous debate over the government’s broad surveillance practices, announced on Friday that he will require intelligence agencies to obtain permission from a secret court before tapping into a vast storehouse of telephone data, and will ultimately move that data out of the hands of the government.
Mr. Obama, in a much-anticipated speech on Friday morning, announced that he is pulling back the government’s wide net of surveillance at home and abroad, staking out a middle ground between the far-reaching proposals of his own advisers and the concerns of the nation’s intelligence agencies. In a much-anticipated speech that ranged from broad principles to technical details, Mr. Obama said he would end the vast collection of phone data as it exists today. He will also restrict the ability of the National Security Agency to throw a net well beyond the data of an individual target and collect unlimited numbers.
At the heart of the changes, prompted by the disclosure of surveillance practices by a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, is an overhaul of a bulk data collection program that has swept up many millions of records of Americans’ telephone calls, though not their content. And the president said he would sharply restrict eavesdropping on the leaders of dozens of foreign allies, the disclosure of which ignited a diplomatic firestorm with friendly countries like Germany.
A review panel appointed by Mr. Obama recommended that the government no longer be allowed to hold the data and that instead it be left in the hands of the telecommunications firms or an independent third party and tapped only with permission of a judge. The telecommunications firms, however, objected to being the repository of the information and no independent third party currently exists, so Mr. Obama will call for further study to decide what to do with the data. But Mr. Obama did not accept other recommendations that have been made to him on reining in surveillance, like requiring court approval for so-called national security letters, in which the government demands information on individuals from companies. That was a victory for the F.B.I. and other law-enforcement agencies, who argue that these letters are vital to investigations.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and intelligence agencies will be assigned to report back to Mr. Obama by March 28 on how the program can continue “without the government holding the metadata,” said the administration official. At the same time, Mr. Obama will consult with Congress to seek its views. Any change could require legislation. Seeking to balance the concerns of privacy advocates with those of the intelligence agencies, Mr. Obama insisted that the aggressive practices of the N. S.A. did not constitute an abuse of its authority, and that in many cases they were necessary to protect national security. But he said he was sympathetic to the arguments of those who say technology is enabling intelligence agencies to spy on people at home and abroad in a way that raises civil liberties concerns.
In the address, to an audience at the Justice Department, Mr. Obama also outlined a plan to tighten privacy safeguards for foreigners, particularly heads of state, and proposed a new public advocate to represent privacy concerns at a secret intelligence court. At the heart of the changes, spurred by the disclosure of surveillance practices by a former N.S.A. contractor, Edward J. Snowden, will be an overhaul of a bulk data program that has swept up many millions of records of Americans’ telephone calls, though not their content.
The president fused broad principles with specific proposals – all in the service of his refrain that just because the government can do something, it does not mean it should. He addressed an audience that included Justice Department lawyers, intelligence officials, and civil liberties advocates, though his message was likely to be watched globally. Mr. Obama made no mention of two of the recommendations from a panel that looked into surveillance that are of most pressing concern to Silicon Valley and the business community: that the N.S.A. “not in any way subvert, undermine, weaken or make vulnerable” commercial software, and that it move away from exploiting flaws in software to conduct cyberattacks or surveillance.
The White House had been tight-lipped about the specific proposals Mr. Obama would make. But broad descriptions began circulating as the president met with lawmakers and intelligence officials to brief them. Some of the tough decisions are likely to be left to Congress, which must sign off on many of Mr. Obama’s changes. The president has been sharply criticized by companies that protest that the N.S.A.'s practices are costing them billions of dollars in foreign sales to customers in Europe and Asia who fear that American products have been deliberately compromised by the agency.
In response to the furor generated by Mr. Snowden’s disclosures, Mr. Obama commissioned a panel of presidential advisers who reviewed the N.S.A.'s surveillance practices and urged him to end the systematic collection of logs of all Americans’ phone calls. It said the government should keep those in private hands, “for queries and data mining” only by court order. Mr. Obama’s refusal to address the issue reflects a deep divide in the administration, with some intelligence officials complaining that without the ability to break encryption and create “back doors"’ to enter computer systems abroad and exploit flaws in software, the United States would be unilaterally disarming at a moment of heightened cyberconflict.
The panel, which included five intelligence and legal experts, recommended in a 300-page report that any operation to spy on foreign leaders pass a rigorous test that weighs the potential economic or diplomatic costs if the operation becomes public. To prevent harm to the credibility of American technology firms, it also recommended that the N.S.A. stop weakening encryption technologies for computer networks and using flaws in common computer programs as a basis for mounting cyberattacks. This issue has not generated the kind of public outrage that the surveillance has. But technology executives say it is at the top of their agenda, and they are already trying to develop “N.S.A.-resistant"’ products. Meanwhile, from Germany to China, there is talk of boycotting some American hardware and cloud services that are viewed as compromised.
By embracing some of these proposals, like stricter standards on surveillance of foreign leaders, while brushing aside others, like storing bulk telephone data with private companies, the president is balancing sometimes conflicting demands from Silicon Valley, the intelligence agencies and the pinstriped world of diplomacy. Senior intelligence officials indicated that placing a limit of two additional contacts from that of an initial target – the so-called “two-hop” rule – would not be a major burden because the practice of investigating an endless chain of contacts creates such a massive amount of data that it is too unwieldy for law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Obama has already rejected one recommendation: splitting command of the N.S.A., which conducts surveillance, from the United States Cyber Command, the Pentagon’s cyberwarfare unit, to avoid concentrating too much power in the hands of a single individual. The president also proposedcreating a panel of advocates on privacy and technology issues who would appear before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court, but it raised questions. A senior official said the advocates would be called on only in “novel” cases, rather than in every case. Left unanswered is who would decide which cases are novel.
The speech was weeks in the making, aides said, after a long Christmas break in Hawaii during which Mr. Obama weighed the 46 recommendations made by his panel of advisers. Mr. Obama did not take up a recommendation to have the members of the surveillance court selected by appeals court judges rather than exclusively by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Mr. Obama is not opposed to overhauling that process, administration officials said, but such a change would have to be authorized by Congress and he did not want to appear to be targeting the chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr.