[Infowarrior] - Obama Officials Seek to Hold NSA Phone Records Longer

[Richard Forno]

Obama Officials Seek to Hold NSA Phone Records Longer
Say Data Needed in Lawsuits Challenging Such Surveillance
By DEVLIN BARRETT CONNECT
Feb. 26, 2014 2:39 p.m. ET

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304709904579407321915018810

The Obama administration has asked a special court for approval to hold on to National Security Agency phone records for a longer period—an unintended consequence of lawsuits seeking to stop the data-surveillance program.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Justice Department was considering such a move, which would end up expanding the controversial phone records database by not deleting older call records.

Under the current system, the database is purged of phone records more than five years old. The Justice Department, in a filing made public Wednesday, said it needs to hold on to the older records as evidence in lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and others.

Under the proposal made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the older data would continue to be held, but NSA analysts would not be allowed to search it.

Write to Devlin Barrett at devlin.barrett at wsj.com

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