WASHINGTON D.C.
U.S. President Barack Obama has called on Congress to halt the government’s domestic bulk collection of phone data.
Instead of the current program in which the National Security Agency collects and holds phone data, the President is asking that phone records remain with the phone companies. The government will then request data on individual phone records through a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
“Legislation will be needed to permit the government to obtain this information with the speed and in the manner that will be required to make this approach workable,” said Obama in a statement released to the press on Thursday.
He added that the administration has been working with members of Congress while he reviewed changes to the current program. Obama said he would revise the controversial program in January following public outcry after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed details of previously secret mass data collection programs last year.
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