AP Source: NSA phone data control to come to end

[unhappycamper]

http://hosted2.ap.org/NCFAY/9672d9fdd81a405387d1c9ef08e47277/Article_2014-01-17-NSA%20Surveillance/id-54ecd81705b440b5a185c69065cf1b45

AP Source: NSA phone data control to come to end
By JULIE PACE, AP White House Correspondent
Jan. 17, 2014 8:52 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to calm a furor over U.S. surveillance powers, President Barack Obama on Friday will call for ending the government's control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans and require intelligence agencies to get a secretive court's permission before accessing the records, a senior administration official said.

However, congressional officials say the moves would require approval from lawmakers, raising questions about how quickly - or even whether - the proposals could be enacted by a Congress that is divided over the future of the government's spying operations.

Obama will announce the decisions in a highly anticipated speech at the Justice Department. He will not offer his own plan for where the phone records should be moved and will instead call on the attorney general and intelligence community to recommend a transfer point before March 28, when the collection program comes up for reauthorization. The official says the administration will also consult with Congress on the data transfer.

Privacy advocates say moving the data outside the government's control could minimize the risk of unauthorized or overly broad searches by the NSA. A presidential review panel proposed moving the data to the telephone companies or a third party. However, the phone providers have balked at changes that would put them back in control of the records, citing liability concerns if hackers or others were able to gain unauthorized access to the records.

[bemildred]

1. So now the argument over who gets to hold the bag starts.

"You want to spy on everyone?

No, they don't trust me.

Well, they don't trust us either.

Yeah, but you aren't the government."