Cyber spying reforms ‘substantial’
Collection of phone records to remain
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama announced Friday a series of what he called “significant and substantial reforms” to the government cyber surveillance programs, both in the U.S. and around the world.
Yet at the same time he made it clear that the controversial bulk-data collection of U.S. and foreign citizens’ phone records will remain in place, though the data itself will be stored outside government hands.
“The United States must preserve and continue to develop a robust and technologically advanced signals intelligence capability to protect our security and that of our partners and allies,” he said.
Chief among his reforms is the decision to no longer allow the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence-gathering entities to retain indefinitely bulk databases on phone calls of U.S. and overseas citizens.
Instead, the government will devise a system whereby it has access strictly for intelligence purposes to the bulk meta-data, without actually retaining it. Obama admitted, however, that he doesn’t know how this will be done.
Nor will NSA analysts be allowed to launch extensive queries of meta-data without judicial approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). This means that each time a signals analyst digs beyond the so-called second “hop” of data combing, he or she will require a judge’s approval to go deeper.
Obama also announced that the U.S. will extend the same privacy rights granted U.S. citizens to those of foreign countries and will no longer routinely eavesdrop on the phone calls of foreign leaders.
“The leaders of our close friends and allies deserve to know that if I want to know what they think about an issue, I’ll pick up the phone and call them, rather than turning to surveillance,” he said.
Reforms will also be made to the judicial process whereby the NSA obtains legal approval for its signals surveillance. To assure a broader range of opinions, Obama ordered the creation of an outside panel of lawyers who will advocate issues of privacy, civil liberties and technology before the FISA court. Until now, only NSA lawyers were allowed to present arguments during the secret court proceedings.
Finally, Obama announced a comprehensive review of big data and how it is managed both in government and in the private sector.
“Ultimately what’s at stake in this debate goes far beyond a few months of headlines or passing tensions in our foreign policy.” he said.
“When you cut through the noise, what really is at stake is how we remain true to who we are in a world that is remaking itself at dizzying speed.”
The changes, some of which will require congressional approval, come in the wake of disclosures by former NSA leaker Edward Snowden, revealing that NSA has been collecting socalled meta-data on almost every American’s phone calls, emails and other social media communications. This data does not include content or names.
It has also been monitoring the phone calls of world leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil.
Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), the ultrasecret federal spy agency that has faced allegations of spying on foreign governments, wouldn’t say Friday whether the reforms announced by Obama will change any of its activities, noting it operates under its own legislation and complies with Canadian laws.
“In his speech, President Obama stressed the importance of foreign intelligence in protecting national security, and the need to balance security and privacy. Under the National Defence Act, CSE conducts foreign signals intelligence activities that support the government’s decision-making in the fields of national security, defence and international affairs,” CSEC spokesperson Lauri Sullivan said in an email.
In October, Brazil’s Globo television, based on documents leaked by Snowden, said CSEC targeted the meta-data of phone calls and emails to and from the Brazilian ministry of mines and energy.
In his speech, Obama made scant mention of Snowden other than to claim, “If any individual who objects to government policy can take it into their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will not be able to keep our people safe, or conduct foreign policy.”
Americans remain divided on whether Snowden is a traitor or hero. But no one disputes the fact that the ongoing debate on cyber spying sparked Obama’s reforms, however modest.