While phone sex may be a slowly dying art, the risk of NSA abuse has only grown as new media takes its place. Today, EO 12333 surveillance can put your nude selfies and your sex tapes into the NSA's hands, where analysts may once again be tempted to pass them around in violation of agency rules. As Edward Snowden recently said, the auditing of the NSA's systems is weak, and the ability to ogle nude photos is seen as one of the "fringe benefits of surveillance positions."
The NSA agrees that your phone number is identifying (except when it doesn't).Much of the public debate on the NSA's collection of phone records, or "metadata," has focused on the Section 215 program. But reports suggest that the NSA collects an even greater quantity of call records under EO 12333 -- up to five billion records per day. Though this collection takes place overseas, it still captures Americans' domestic metadata and other sensitive information, like location data, that the NSA says it does not collect under Section 215. That raises concerns that the NSA is using EO 12333 to maneuver around restrictions it faces under other statutory authorities.
The government has argued that phone records are not private because they don't include names, just numbers. This is an absurd argument. As the ACLU has explained, phone numbers are every bit as identifying as our social security numbers -- no two of us have the same one -- and it's a trivial matter for the government to attach a name to a number. One of the new documents shows that, back in 2007, the NSA's own lawyers recognized that Congress had considered this question -- and had agreed with the ACLU:
This memo goes on to argue that Americans' metadata may be shared widely across intelligence agencies because it is not constitutionally protected -- an argument that's wrong on several grounds. Metadata can reveal personal information that is just as sensitive and private as the content of communications. In addition, as the memo itself acknowledges, the handling of Americans' metadata is subject to certain statutory requirements. But it's not yet clear how the NSA interpreted those protections.
We're hoping that our FOIA litigation will result in the release of more information -- not only about the scope of collection under EO 12333, but also about how the NSA and other agencies are handling and sharing the vast amounts of data they acquire.
This article was published by the ACLU.(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
