NSA has not yet begun testing is alternate system
Source: Dan Froomkin | The Intercept |
The National Security Agency is literally counting down the hours until its deadline to stop the bulk collection of information on American phone calls. The agency’s civil liberties and privacy officer, Rebecca Richards, said Wednesday morning that there are about 930 hours left. And yes, she said, “there is a big clock.”
The deadline is 11:59 p.m. on November 29. Richards said the NSA has not yet begun testing is alternate system. She spoke at the Second Annual Cato Surveillance Conference.
The collection of massive amounts of American metadata – who calls who, and how long they talk – is known as the 215 program on account of the section of the Patriot Act the government claimed gave it legal standing.
The program existed in secret for more than a decade, until NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed its existence in 2013.
