Assignment 1: Obama to Call for End to N.S.A.’s Bulk Data Collection - Cheryl Chua & Kai Ting (4B)

SUMMARY

Ever since the revelation by ex-N.S.A contractor Edward J Snowden, the fact that the American government has been keeping bulk records of the American citizens' calling habits has been faced with many oppositions. The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a new legislative proposal to replace the soon expiring 215 program, which has been listed as illegal by an independent federal privacy watchdog. Under the proposal, it states that the N.S.A would end it's systematic collection of data of the Americans' calling habits but instead the bulk records would stay in the hands of the phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. With a new kind of court order, the N.S.A could only obtain the records with permission from a judge and would require phone companies to swiftly provide the records in technologically compatible data format, including data about any new calls placed or received after the order is received. However, this proposal would not affect other forms of bulk collection of records under the same provision.

READER'S RESPONSE

By collecting every and any Americans' phone records for a time as long as five years illegally, is in fact a major breach of not just Americans, but any individual's basic right to privacy. If phone records of Americans are to be collected in bulk without each and every affected individual's consent, it is taking someone's belonging without permission which is in a way, a form of theft. Besides, it has been mentioned in the web article that such actions are deemed illegal by America's laws, if it is illegal, it should definitely be stopped and thus not justified for the N.S.A to continue collecting phone records of all Americans. Even though it is said that the huge amount of phone records stored by the N.S.A is necessary to aid in the government's investigations in terrorism and to help prevent large scale attacks, there have been many examples questioning the necessity of the bulk collection of phone records by the N.S.A due to its ineffectiveness. For example, in 2010, Basaaly Moalin was alleged of numerous conspiracies to provide support to al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist organization. At trial, prosecutors alleged that Basaaly Moalin spoke by telephone to Aden Ayrow, a al-Shabaab leader, and that Basaaly Moalin then transferred an estimated $8,500 to the organization. In this case, the N.S.A's bulk collection of phone records were utilized to associate a number in the organization to the suspect, however, the authorities found themselves in a two months wait to start investigations and then wiretap Bassaly Moalin's phone. This is an evident example showing that the N.S.A is in fact not necessary in investigations and thus has no valid purpose or reason to mass collect Americans' phone records and should not be justified.