Reports from last week revealed that the National Securityy Administration would stop its phone record tracking activities. "The administration," reports The Guardian "as suggested in a memo it sent Congress on Wednesday, declined to ask a secret surveillance court for another 90-day extension of the order necessary to collect US phone metadata in bulk. The filing deadline was Friday, hours before the Senate failed to come to terms on a bill that would have formally repealed the NSA domestic surveillance program." An administration official later confirmed this decision.
As of June, the NSA will not be able to collect American phone records en masse. This would be the first time that the NSA has not been allowed to collect phone information from Americans since October 2001, less than a month after the World Trade Center bombing.
This change in policy came about with little fanfare, yet with a major effect. GOP leader Mitch McConnell is currently trying to protect NSA's surveillance programs from cancellation. Most of his attempts have been failures.
In fact, Congress defeated a number of privacy and surveillance bills this week. The Senate defeated the USA Freedom Act, which "would have banned the NSA bulk collection program while renewing an expiring Patriot Act provision allowing FBI access to business records and a vast amount of US communications metadata."McConnell also attempted, and failed, to pass an extension of that same Patriot Act provision" reports the Guardian. Mcconnell will attempt to resolve that provision on May 31, when he reconvenes the Senate.
The ban on collecting bulk phone records will begin on June 1 at 5 PM EST.
