The government’s bulk telephone record collection program threatens civil liberties and produces no critical intelligence, according to a review by an independent, bipartisan watchdog agency.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) issued an assessment of the state of government surveillance, and chastised the government for declining to make privacy reforms.
PCLOB particularly criticized the NSA’s mass collection of telephone records. According to the agency, this program “lacks a viable legal foundation implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, raises serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value.”
And, vindicating the suspicions of many privacy advocates, the invasive program has done essentially nothing for U.S. security. After poring through classified material and interviewing members of the intelligence community, the board concluded, “We have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the telephone records program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation.”
Although the agency has brought up concerns about the phone program in the past, the government has, unsurprisingly, ignored their suggestions: “Many of the recommendations directed at the Administration have yet to be fully satisfied, with the Administration having taken only partial steps, at most, toward implementing them.”
The agency also called out the president for claiming that he has to wait on Congress to implement NSA reforms. “It should be noted that the Administration can end the bulk telephone records program at any time, without congressional involvement,” the report states.
The report spent some time discussing the failed USA Freedom Act. The bill would have curbed the phone program, but still allowed the government to collect the records of specific numbers from phone companies. PCLOB ruled that preserving the ability to collect records was unnecessary: “While legislation like the USA FREEDOM Act would be needed to retain the unique capabilities of the program without collecting telephone records in bulk, the Board examined those capabilities and concluded that they have provided only ‘limited value’ in combatting terrorism.”
When it comes to internet surveillance, however, PCLOB is much more lenient, and says the government has accepted “virtually all of the recommendations.”
