ARS Technica – by Joe SilverLast Thursday, the Obama Administration announced details of its plan to overhaul the government’s bulk phone-records collection program, previously authorized under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.
Under the proposed changes, the National Security Agency would no longer be in the business of collecting call records in bulk. Rather, the agency will be required to go directly to phone companies to obtain records, and it will need prior permission from a judge to access such information.
Some, like Michelle Richardson of the American Civil Liberties Union, have praised this action, calling the White House proposal “a crucial first step toward reining in the NSA’s overreaching surveillance,” according to NPR. Even NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden described this moment as “a turning point.”
Nevertheless, while this is an important step, many believe that the proposed action alone is not enough. Today, a coalition of public interest organizations joined together in writing a letter to Congress and the president, requesting a stop to all bulk collection practices by intelligence agencies and urging the passage of the Senate USA Freedom Act. The letter explains:
Legislation that focuses only on phone records may still allow for the bulk collection of, for example, Internet metadata, location information, financial records, library records, and numerous other records that may help “identify unknown relationships among individuals.”
A Department of Justice white paper from last August explained the rationale behind the bulk collection of phone metadata under Section 215, namely that the DOJ would be justified in bulk collection of any records that reveal “relationships” between individuals. This logic would allow for the gathering of a wide range of records, perhaps including financial records and location information.
We know that the NSA has used Section 215 to suck up entire databases of Americans’ phone records, as this was the first reported leak from Snowden back on June 5, 2013. We also know that the NSA was storing online metadata for up to a year for millions of Internet users under the authority of Section 214, whether or not they were targeted as persons of interest, as The Guardian’s James Ball previously reported. This program was apparently shut down in 2011.
Swept up in the dragnet
All of this leads to a question: what other information—besides phone records—has the NSA been collecting and storing?
While this inquiry is somewhat speculative, given the highly secretive nature of such collection practices, information contained in the House Intelligence Bill (or, what journalist Marcy Wheeler in her blog emptywheel refers to as the “RuppRogers Fake Dragnet Fix Bill”) provides circumstantial evidence that the NSA might have been collecting much more than has been previously discussed.
Considering that The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald recently told Democracy Now that “the goal of the NSA really is the elimination of privacy worldwide,” the idea that the NSA might have made some lists that have yet to be revealed should not come as a terrible shock.
The language of the House Intelligence Bill provides a list of “business records,” the bulk collection of which, if passed, would be prohibited under Section 215 of the Patriot Act:
- Some but not all library and book records
- Firearm sales records
- Tax return records
- Education records
- Some but not all medical records
A similar list has been compiled by Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall in a letter they wrote to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on June 27, 2013, in which they sought additional information on secretive collection practices and registries under Section 215.
The list from the Wyden/Udall letter, which was co-signed by 25 other senators, is instructive as a point of comparison to the list in the House bill. Wyden et. al note that the scope of the Patriot Act’s “Business Record” allowances is very expansive, documenting such other categories of information that can be collected under this authority to include the following:
- Credit card purchases
- Pharmacy records
- Library records
- Firearm sales records
- Financial information
- A range of other sensitive subjects
Interestingly, both lists contain firearms sales records. Wheeler has long suspected that the Department of Justice has been compiling a gun registry, which would run expressly counter to Congressional intent. Whether these lists contain items currently being collected by the intelligence community, or rather are an accounting of items not to be collected in the future, needs to be clarified to the public.
While there remain many unanswered questions about bulk collection practices by intelligence agencies, the civil liberties organizations that have signed on to the above letter to Congress and President Obama urge that whatever legislation ultimately tackles the issue of bulk collection must include language that clearly states what can and cannot be collected. Harley Geiger of the Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the organizations that signed onto the above letter, told us, “Whatever bill comes out, limits to the authority of government need to be absolutely clear. The House Intelligence Bill is not clear. The government has twisted it to expand their power.”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/what-besides-phone-records-does-the-nsa-bulk-collect/