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NSA phone spying rationale declassified

Victor Barreiro Jr.

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Declassified documents show the rationale behind the FISC upholding the constitutionality of government collection of phone metadata

THE RATIONALE. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court explains its ruling in a 29-page opinion.

MANILA, Philippines – Declassified documents from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) reveal the court’s justifications for upholding the constitutionality of the US National Security Agency’s collection of phone call data for anti-terrorism purposes.

According to the 29-page opinion signed by judge Claire V. Egan of the FISC, the collection of call details is justified if such data collected is relevant to an investigation into known (or unknown) terrorist threats who could be in the US.

The Washington Post cites another portion of the court’s opinion, saying that the government only needs to show “reasonable grounds to believe” those records would be useful in an investigation.

Relying on a 1976 ruling from Smith v. Maryland, part of the opinion notes how, due to a third party (telephone companies) transmitting the signal of callers to other people, callers cannot expect total privacy. They also added that the government isn’t searching for that number specifically; rather, they are only collecting data in bulk.

One additional twist presents itself in this opinion. Wired explains that telephone companies did not challenge these requests, with one notable passage saying, “To this date, no holder of records who has received an Order to produce bulk telephony metadata has challenged the legality of such an Order.”

No disputes were reportedly made despite a mechanism for doing so being available to companies receiving these data request orders. – Rappler.com

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Victor Barreiro Jr.

Victor Barreiro Jr is part of Rappler's Central Desk. An avid patron of role-playing games and science fiction and fantasy shows, he also yearns to do good in the world, and hopes his work with Rappler helps to increase the good that's out there.