The National Security Agency may be getting out of the business of sweeping up and storing vast amounts of data on people's phone calls, according to the New York Times.
The White House is preparing a proposal that would curb the bulk collection of phone records by the National Security Agency, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing administration officials, the Times reported.
The administration wants phone companies to keep the bulk records for 18 months, as they do now, and seeks to preserve its ability to see certain records in specific circumstances approved by a judge, the Times reported.
Obama in January outlined a series of limited reforms to NSA data-gathering, banning eavesdropping on the leaders of friendly or allied nations and proposing some changes to how NSA treats Americans' phone data, according to the Times.
The most sweeping program, collection of telephone "metadata," comes up for reauthorization on Friday, the Times reported.
Obama had asked Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. intelligence community to report back to him before that deadline on how to preserve the necessary capabilities of the program, without the government holding the metadata, the Times reported.
The Times quoted officials as saying the administration had decided to renew the current program for one more 90-day cycle.
Under Obama's legislative proposal, the government would no longer systematically collect and store records of phone-call data, but get orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to obtain records of numbers that a judge determines are tied to terrorism, according to the Times.
The call data would be kept with telephone companies that would not be required to keep the information any longer tan they normally do, the officials told the Times.
The Times said the administration's proposal would also include a provision clarifying whether Section 215 of the Patriot Act, due to expire next year without congressional authorization, "may in the future be legitimately interpreted as allowing bulk phone data collection."
Metadata collection has been a heated issue since disclosures last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden of widespread U.S. surveillance activities, according to the Times.
