Here are a few of the recommendations made by an outside review panel for wide-ranging changes to the U.S. government's surveillance programs:
1.The government now stores bulk telephony metadata, understood as information that includes the telephone numbers that both originate and receive calls, time of call and date of call. We recommend that Congress should end such storage and transition to a system in which such metadata is held privately for the government to query when necessary for national security purposes.
2.Restrictions on the ability of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to compel third parties (such as telephone service providers) to disclose private information to the government.
3.Legislation should be enacted requiring information about surveillance programs to be made available to the Congress and to the American people to the greatest extent possible.
4.Significant steps should be taken to protect the privacy of non-US persons.
5.The president should create a new process, requiring highest-level approval of all sensitive intelligence requirements and the methods that the Intelligence Community will use to meet them.
6.We believe that the director should be a Senate-confirmed position, with civilians eligible to hold that position; the president should give serious consideration to making the next director of NSA a civilian.
7.We recommend that Congress should create the position of Public Interest Advocate to represent the interests of privacy and civil liberties before the FISC.
1.The government now stores bulk telephony metadata, understood as information that includes the telephone numbers that both originate and receive calls, time of call and date of call. We recommend that Congress should end such storage and transition to a system in which such metadata is held privately for the government to query when necessary for national security purposes.
2.Restrictions on the ability of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to compel third parties (such as telephone service providers) to disclose private information to the government.
3.Legislation should be enacted requiring information about surveillance programs to be made available to the Congress and to the American people to the greatest extent possible.
4.Significant steps should be taken to protect the privacy of non-US persons.
5.The president should create a new process, requiring highest-level approval of all sensitive intelligence requirements and the methods that the Intelligence Community will use to meet them.
6.We believe that the director should be a Senate-confirmed position, with civilians eligible to hold that position; the president should give serious consideration to making the next director of NSA a civilian.
7.We recommend that Congress should create the position of Public Interest Advocate to represent the interests of privacy and civil liberties before the FISC.