Internet monitoring by NSA legal: US board

WASHINGTON: The National Security Agency programs that collect huge volumes of Internet data within the United States are constitutional and employ “reasonable” safeguards designed to protect the rights of Americans, an independent privacy and civil liberties board has found.

In a report released Tuesday night, the bipartisan, five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, appointed by President Barack Obama, largely endorsed a set of NSA surveillance programs that have provoked worldwide controversy since they were disclosed last year by former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden.

However, the board urged new i nter nal i ntelligence agency safeguards designed to further guard against misuse.

Under a provision known as Section 702, added in 2008 to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, the NSA uses court orders and taps on fiber optic lines to target the data of foreigners living abroad when their emails, web chats, text messages and other communications traverse the U.S.

Section 702 has its roots in the Terrorist Surveillance Program, a collection program President George W. Bush ordered after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. without seeking a change in the law. After administration lawyers deemed aspects of it illegal, and after co-called warrantless wiretapping was disclosed in news reports, Congress essentially legalized the program in 2008.

Much about how the government uses Section 702 information remains unknown, including the extent to which it is used to help authorities investigate and prosecute domestic law enforcement cases, such as drug cases, unrelated to terrorism or intelligence.