WASHINGTON (AP) — To assuage privacy concerns, the White House and some lawmakers are pushing forward with changes to a surveillance program that would leave the bulk storage of millions of Americans’ telephone records in the hands of phone companies, even though they are convinced the information now held by the government is protected and question whether the changes would actually do more to protect privacy.

President Barack Obama intends to ask Congress to end the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. Instead, the government would ask phone companies to search their records for possible links to terrorism.