Obama Tweaks NSA Spying Rules

The Obama administration Tuesday announced small changes to how it collects and stores bulk U.S. and foreign surveillance data, a move that arrives a year after the president pledged to reform the National Security Agency's controversial spying regime.

Under orders outline in a new report, intelligence analysts will be required to delete some private communications data of Americans that is collected incidentally and deemed unnecessary to keep for security purposes. Similar data collected about foreigners will also be destroyed, but within five years.

Additionally, the administration will begin allowing secretive national security letters, which are used to compel companies to hand over communications data or financial records of certain users for the purposes of a national security investigation, to be disclosed publicly after three years. Several tech companies have long complained about the tight gag orders that prevent disclosure of the amount of national security letters received from the government.

The release of the report marks one of the intelligence community's most serious attempts to publicly disclose efforts it has made to reform its surveillance operations in the wake of Edward Snowden's disclosures more than a year and a half ago. Most of the report focuses on progress made under a presidential policy directive declared by Obama last January, when the administration was besieged by a seemingly endless deluge of leaks and was desperate to restore confidence in the intelligence community.

But the new report is likely to do little to appease privacy advocates, who are still waiting for Obama to end the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. telephone records. Obama said a year ago he would only move forward to end the controversial dragnet program after Congress sent him a bill suitable to his specifications, but so far Congress has failed to do that. The USA Freedom Act fell to a Republican filibuster in the Senate in November, but lawmakers in both chambers have vowed to revive the bill this year.

Congress needs to act in some fashion before core provisions of the post-9/11 Patriot Act expire on June 1, however. Section 215 of that law provides the NSA with its legal authority for the mass surveillance of U.S. metadata, but it remains unclear how willing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans are to compromise on intelligence matters. The rise of extremist terrorists in the Middle East and the recent spate of violence in France has further troubled national security hawks, such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who last week called for a permanent extension of the NSA's mass surveillance powers.

Tuesday's report reaffirms the administration's support for the USA Freedom Act, noting that "we continue to call on Congress to reform Section 215 in a manner consistent with the president's proposal."

In a statement Tuesday, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent executive branch watchdog, noted that "virtually all" of its recommendations made last year for overhauling the NSA's foreign surveillance protocol have now been implemented. The board additionally noted that "most" of its recommendations regarding domestic surveillance under Section 215 had been implemented, with one major caveat—bulk phone collection has not been halted.

"The administration has not implemented the board's recommendation to halt the NSA's bulk telephone records program, which it could do at any time without congressional involvement," the board said.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also said it will release another progress update in 2016 to further detail the government's "on-going progress to implement these reforms."

Obama alluded to the report last month during his State of the Union address. The president said the forthcoming announcements would show "we're keeping our promise to keep our country safe while strengthening privacy."