PRISM

[Lamplighter]

Zengum and Edward Snowden should be very proud today...

Repeated studies found no evidence of intentional abuse for personal or political gain,
but also found no evidence that it [*| had ever thwarted a terrorist attack.

[*] the the bulk collection of phone records program


U.S. Surveillance in Place Since 9/11 Is Sharply Limited
NY Times - JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JONATHAN WEISMANJUNE 2, 2015

WASHINGTON — In a significant scaling back of national security policy formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
the Senate on Tuesday approved legislation curtailing the federal government’s sweeping surveillance
of American phone records, and President Obama signed the measure hours later.

The passage of the bill — achieved over the fierce opposition of the Senate majority leader — will allow the government to restart surveillance operations, but with new restrictions.

The legislation signaled a cultural turning point for the nation, almost 14 years after the Sept. 11 attacks heralded the construction of a powerful national security apparatus. The shift against the security state began with the revelation by Edward J. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, about the bulk collection of phone records. The backlash was aided by the growth of interconnected communication networks run by companies that have felt manhandled by government prying.

The storage of those records now shifts to the phone companies, and the government must petition a special federal court for permission to search them.
<snip>
The [new] legislation’s goals are twofold: to rein in aspects of the government’s data collection authority and to crack open the workings of the secret national security court that oversees it. After six months, the phone companies, not the N.S.A., will hold the bulk phone records — logs of calls placed from one number to another, and the time and the duration of those contacts, but not the content of what was said. A new kind of court order will permit the government to swiftly analyze them.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, for the first time, will be required to declassify some of its most significant decisions, and outside voices will be allowed to argue for privacy rights before the court in certain cases.