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from the gov't-appointee-fights-for-the-people dept.
The appointment of a FISA Court amicus to argue on behalf of the American public -- part of the surveillance reforms contained in the USA Freedom Act -- seems to be working out pretty well. FISC judge Michael Mosman appointed Washington DC attorney Preston Burton to examine one issue facing the court: whether the NSA can retain the bulk records it collected under Section 215. According to the new limitations, the NSA must immediately destroy any records that are not "foreign intelligence information." Unsurprisingly, the NSA is reluctant to begin this purge.
There are a certain amount of records the NSA must retain as they are part of ongoing lawsuits against the government. The NSA has stated that it's impossible to separate the phone records relevant to the lawsuits from the rest of the collection.
Burton -- in his response to the government's response to his original amicus brief -- doesn't find the NSA's claim of limited technical capabilities believable. In his first brief, he asked the following question:
Why has the government been unable to reach some stipulation with the plaintiffs to preserve only the evidence necessary for plaintiffs to meet their standing burden? Consider whether it is appropriate for the government to retain billions of irrelevant call detail records involving millions of people based on, what undersigned understands from counsel involved in that litigation, the government's stubborn procedural challenges to standing- a situation that the government has fostered by declining to identify the particular telecommunications provider in question and/or stipulate that the plaintiff is a customer of a relevant provided.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by AudioGuy on Saturday December 12 2015, @09:26PM
Since the NSA is incapable of handling this, let the professionals we already pay for this purpose handle it: transfer all these records to the control of the Library of Congress.
1. Move all related data archives and associated systems from NSA to the LOC.
2. Move all funding previously used for this program to LOC to defray costs. (NSA cannot legally do this any more so the funding is unneeded by them).
3. All records to be considered to be sensitive historical records, to be sealed for 100 years from any access, EXCEPT when a court order is received for the specific purpose of providing the specific information needed for the resolution of current lawsuts.
4. Records to be opened for qualified research purposes after 100 years, with some appropriate privacy protections for the familys of affected persons.