U.S. advised to temper NSA's Web-spying program

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. spy program that compels Internet companies to hand over some users' emails and Web activity needs to be refined to more narrowly target foreign terrorists without violating U.S. citizens' privacy, a government oversight board said.

While the program is legal and effective, more detailed explanations should be provided by the U.S. to justify that information sought relates to a "foreign intelligence purpose," the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board said in a preliminary report released Tuesday night.

The findings, which largely support the once-secret National Security Agency program called Prism, mark the first review by an independent federal agency. The report may provide cover for Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Facebook Inc., which are waging a public-relations battle to persuade customers they aren't willing partners in the government's surveillance.

The board found "no trace" of illegal activity in the program "or any attempt to intentionally circumvent legal limits," the report said. Because the rules "potentially allow a great deal of private information about U.S. persons to be acquired by the government," the board makes recommendations "to ensure that the program appropriately balances national security with privacy and civil liberties."

Several groups have sued to challenge the 2008 law that led to Prism, which was exposed in documents made public last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The privacy board, which plans a formal vote on the recommendations today, isn't seeking any legislative changes. The panel five months ago took a harsher stance on the agency's collection of phone records, calling those practices illegal.

Under Prism, the National Security Agency can use warrants from a secret court that oversees spying under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to force Internet companies to turn over bulk user data on foreigners believed to be outside the U.S. and involved with terrorist organizations. In that process, the agency can collect data that includes the content of communications of U.S. citizens without a warrant as long as those people aren't the target of an investigation.

A warrant would be required to search communications of Americans who are the focus of an investigation.

The board recommends that the agency's targeting decisions specify the criteria that would be sufficient to demonstrate that the standard had been met.

The five-member privacy panel, appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, has no authority to change the programs and can only make recommendations.

The board recommended that the FBI update its policies to reflect how it searches the database of communications for data about U.S. citizens. Panel members were divided on whether to place new limits on the agency's use of that data.

The chairman of the board and another member said the FBI should be required to get court approval to query the database for data on Americans.

The National Security Agency and the CIA should only be permitted to search the database for the communications of Americans "if the query is based upon a statement of facts showing that the query is reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence information as defined in [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]," according to the report.

The Obama administration has defended the section of the law under which Prism operates, calling it critical to anti-terrorism efforts. The program is carried out under Section 702 of the law, which Congress amended in 2008.

The National Security Agency was acquiring more than 250 million Internet communications and telephone conversations annually by 2011 under the program, according to the report.

"The current number is significantly higher," the report said without providing an estimate.

The report describes how the government has been using Section 702 and assesses how effective it has been at thwarting terrorism.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and other lawmakers have expressed concern that the government is doing what amounts to secret backdoor searches of the communications of U.S. citizens.

The National Security Agency, FBI and CIA have queried the database for emails and other Web activity of U.S. citizens to locate information related to potential terrorist plots, Deirdre Walsh, director of legislative affairs for the Office of Director of National Intelligence, wrote in a June 27 letter to Wyden.

"The queries in question are lawful, limited in scope and subject to oversight" and "there is no loophole in the law," Walsh wrote in the letter, which was released Monday by Wyden's office.

A Section on 07/02/2014

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