Newly Declassified Study Demonstrates Uselessness of NSA's Phone Metadata Program

The New York Times is reporting on the NSA's phone metadata program, which the NSA shut down last year: A National Security Agency system that analyzed logs of Americans' domestic phone calls and text messages cost $100 million from 2015 to 2019, but yielded only a single significant investigatio...

Evaluating the NSA's Telephony Metadata Program

Interesting analysis: "Examining the Anomalies, Explaining the Value: Should the USA FREEDOM Act's Metadata Program be Extended?" by Susan Landau and Asaf Lubin. Abstract: The telephony metadata program which was authorized under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, remains one of the most controversi...

FISC Approves 90-Day Extension of Section 215 Surveillance Authority

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has authorized a 90-day extension to the Section 215 bulk telephone collection program used by the National Security Agency, giving the agency through the end of February to run the program in the absence of legislation establishing a new...

The NSA, Obama and Straw Men

For the people expecting President Barack Obama to announce sweeping changes to the NSA’s surveillance programs, his speech on Friday likely was a major disappointment. Obama laid out some new controls and limits for some of the more controversial programs, specifically the phone metadata...

Privacy Advocates Anxious Ahead of Obama NSA Speech

It’s been more than seven months since Edward Snowden began feeding stolen NSA documents to reporters, and in that time, virtually everyone in Washington who could find a microphone or keyboard has voiced an opinion on the agency’s methods and Snowden’s actions. Everyone except President Barack...

NSA Metadata Program Likely Not Cost-Effective, Researchers Say

While much of the coverage of the surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden have focused on the legality and constitutionality of the collection of metadata and Internet traffic in the name of counter-terrorism and national security, the question of whether these programs are actually cost...

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso Discuss NSA PRISM and Privacy

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso talk about the implications of the NSA PRISM and metadata program leaks and what they mean for privacy and security. Download: digitalunderground117...