Charlie Savage reports: The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a legislative proposal to drastically overhaul the National Security Agency’s once-secret bulk phone records program. Under the proposal, data about Americans’ calling habits would be kept in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than…
Category: Govt
Judge Rebukes Justice Dept. for Requesting Overly Broad Email Searches
Matt Apuzzo reports: A federal judge has admonished the Justice Department for repeatedly requesting overly broad searches of people’s email accounts, a practice that he called “repugnant” to the Constitution. The unusually sharp rebuke by Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola came last week in a kickback investigation involving a defense contractor. The case highlights the…
Inside the NSA’s Secret Efforts to Hunt and Hack System Administrators
Ryan Gallagher and Peter Maass report: Across the world, people who work as system administrators keep computer networks in order – and this has turned them into unwitting targets of the National Security Agency for simply doing their jobs. According to a secret document provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the agency tracks down the private email…
US tech giants knew of NSA data collection, agency’s top lawyer insists (update)
This coverage from yesterday’s PCLOB hearing needed to be broken out from other coverage already mentioned on this blog because of its focus on what US tech firms knew. Spencer Ackerman reports: The senior lawyer for the National Security Agency stated unequivocally on Wednesday that US technology companies were fully aware of the surveillance agency’s…