Electronic surveillance

NSA HEAD: LOSS OF ACCESS TO METADATA WILL HURT INTELLIGENCE

On November 29, the NSA will formally end the practice of collecting bulk metadata – records of calls between people but not the actual contents of those calls. Instead, the agency will rely on phone companies to keep the data for use by the NSAupon presentation of a court order. On that day, Americans will become less safe, argued Adm. Michael Rogers, the director of the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, before the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was Rogers’s first appearance before the committee since the passage of the USA Freedom Act in May. Rogers has said little about the bill publicly. On Thursday, Rogers was able to paint the change in law as dire, not only for intelligence gathering, but the safety of the American people.