My must read of the day is "Obama to Call for Overhaul of N.S.A.’s Phone Data Collection Program," in the New York Times:
Mr. Obama is expected to outline plans to put more limits on the bulk collection of telephone calls; tighten privacy safeguards for foreigners, particularly heads of state; and propose a new public advocate to represent privacy concerns at a secret intelligence court. The president will lay out the details in an address scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Justice Department.
But he will stop short of turning over the storage of phone data to a consortium of telecommunications companies, according to officials, and he will not require that a court grant permission for all so-called national security letters seeking business records.
Instead of implementing these changes to appease critics, the president could have done a better job of explaining the benefits of and need for a program like this. Perhaps it could use some changes, but if the majority of the recommendations given by the review board were implemented, it would significantly alter the program, and that’s not good.
PRISM is not an invasion of privacy. It’s completely legal. You do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to metadata phone records, according to Supreme Court precedent from 1979.
There absolutely needs to be a balance between privacy and national security, but metadata is no more invasive than someone reading the return address on the back of an envelope. And it keeps us safe.
Preventing even one terrorist attack makes this program successful.