OTI Appalled that Administration Seeks Renewal of Privacy-Invasive and Ineffective Phone Records Program

Earlier this week, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) wrote to Congress to seek renewal of a law that authorizes the government to collect call records, even though the NSA has suspended the program indefinitely. This law, known as the Section 215 call detail records (CDR) program, allows the government to collect records showing which phone numbers are contacting which other numbers and when, on an ongoing basis. The Section 215 CDR program is currently set to expire on December 15 when several provisions of the USA Patriot Act will sunset unless reauthorized by Congress.

The DNI’s letter acknowledges that the NSA suspended the Section 215 CDR program “after balancing the program’s relative intelligence value, associated costs, and compliance and data integrity concerns caused by the unique complexities of using these company-generated business records for intelligence purposes.” Nonetheless, the DNI asserts that at some time in the future, with changes in technology, the government may want to use the authority.

The DNI’s letter was sent on the same day that New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI), as part of a coalition of 37 civil society organizations, wrote to the House Judiciary Committee urging Congress to enact “meaningful surveillance reforms” including “repealing the CDR program” as a “necessary first step.” As OTI has previously argued, Congress should not reauthorize the Section 215 CDR program because “there is no justification for reauthorizing an ineffective program that can collect massive amounts of revealing information about people who are not suspected of wrongdoing.”

The following quote can be attributed to Sharon Bradford Franklin, policy director at New America’s Open Technology Institute, and former executive director of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board:

“It is appalling that the Administration is seeking renewal of the privacy-invasive call detail records program when the NSA has recognized that the program is ineffective and simply not worth the technical challenges it creates. The notion that the intelligence agencies can never know when they may need this authority in the future is a dangerous one; it creates immense privacy risks without any likelihood of intelligence benefits. Congress should act now to repeal the CDR program once and for all, and truly end bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.”