Report: Obama to give up NSA’s phone call sweep

The Obama administration is expected to propose this week that Congress overhaul the National Security Agency’s electronic surveillance program, according to a report by The New York Times Monday.

An official briefed on the proposal who wished to remain anonymous told the Times that the White House proposal would end the government’s practice of sweeping up phone records of millions of Americans and holding on to those records for five years so the numbers can be searched for national security reasons.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of the government’s secret phone records collection program last year. Privacy advocates were outraged to learn that the government was holding on to phone records of innocent Americans for up to five years.

President Barack Obama had already signaled his intention to roll back data surveillance of Americans in a widely reported speech in January. The latest revelations gave few concrete details to enhance the earlier announcement.

Friday is the deadline Obama set in his January speech for his administration to present him with options on how to proceed with reforming the NSA’s telephone metadata collection practices.

“This will not be simple,” he had said after an independent review panel suggested that a third party or the phone companies themselves should hold onto the records — with the government accessing them as needed.

“Both of these pose difficult problems,” Obama said in January. “Relying solely on the records of multiple providers, for example, could require companies to alter their procedures in ways that raise new privacy concerns.”

Phone companies have been against this option as well. In several meetings with White House staff since December, phone company executives came out strongly opposed to proposals that would shift custody of phone records from the NSA to telecoms.

The executives said they would accept such changes to the NSA program only if they were legally required to do so and if that requirement was spelled out in legislation.

The companies were concerned about the costs of retaining the records and of potential liability, such as being sued by individuals whose phone data was provided to intelligence or law enforcement agencies.

The administration's proposed changes won't happen right away. The government plans to continue its bulk collection program for at least three months, the Times said.

Leaders of the House intelligence committee are expected to introduce legislation Tuesday that would call for an option similar to the Obama administration’s.

Under the administration’s expected legislative proposal, officials would have to obtain phone records by getting individual orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Times said. 

The new court orders would require companies to provide those records swiftly and to make available continuing data related to the order when new calls are placed or received.

Al Jazeera and wire services