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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday December 12 2015, @06:54PM   Printer-friendly
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.


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 12 2015, @09:58PM

    by edIII (791) on Saturday December 12 2015, @09:58PM (#275568)

    You've created barriers and obstructions to the flow of information that are flights of fancy at best, and at worst, illusory.

    All data on the Internet has a corresponding physical location, right here, on planet Earth. The NSA/FBI have all of the power and resources they need to walk into any data center (U.S based) and simply use the principle of 'Might Makes Right'.

    Irrespective of any one single corporation, and their 'pile of data', there are any number of state sanctioned groups attempting to penetrate it. Ironically, aided by our own NSA with their surreptitious weakening of our security. That being a complete betrayal of their alleged good faith participation in helping create our current state of security.

    Whether it's corporations using it, the NSA directly using it, the NSA indirectly using it via Five Eyes partners, it's being used. Don't fool yourself otherwise.

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