Appeals court finds NSA's bulk phone data collection was unlawful

Edward Snowden, who revealed the program in 2013, says he feels vindicated.

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the US National Security Agency's bulk collection of citizens' phone records was against the law. The program, now ended, collected records from phone carriers about who called whom. The massive collection went beyond the scope of what Congress allowed under a foundational surveillance law, the panel of judges ruled, adding that the program may have violated the US Constitution.

The collection program was first revealed to the public in 2013 by journalists who received a document leak from Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor. Snowden also revealed several other programs in which the NSA and agencies in cooperating countries tapped into the backbone of the internet in the name of foreign surveillance. The NSA news outraged privacy advocates and US citizens whose data was caught up in the dragnet. It also prompted US tech companies to distance themselves from government spy agencies in an effort to reassure customers that their data was secure.

https://www.cnet.com/news/appeals-court-finds-nsas-bulk-phone-data-collection-was-unlawful/

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