NSA Purges Hundreds of Millions of Call and Text Records (nytimes.com)

schwit1 shares a report: The National Security Agency has purged hundreds of millions of records logging phone calls and texts that it had gathered from American telecommunications companies since 2015, the agency has disclosed. It had realized that its database was contaminated with some files the agency had no authority to receive. The agency began destroying the records on May 23, it said in a statement. Officials had discovered "technical irregularities" this year in its collection from phone companies of so-called call record details, or metadata showing who called or texted whom and when, but not what they said. The agency had collected the data from a system it created under the USA Freedom Act. Congress enacted that law in 2015 to end and replace a once-secret program that had systematically collected Americans' domestic calling records in bulk. The National Security Agency uses the data to analyze social links between people in a hunt for hidden associates of known terrorism suspects.

Comments

Of course...

[Oswald McWeany]

Sure. The NSA is purging data- just like Kim is purging North Korea's nuclear program. Both are very believable.

I'm sure the NSA is just making a show of deleting data whilst backing it up in another database with more stringent security needed to get access to.

Re:Of course...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, 17 indictments and 5 guilty pleas but it's a witch hunt. All in about a year less time than the Benghazi investigation which netted zero indictments let alone any pleas. It's really falling apart.

Destroying evidence

[DCFusor]

Against themselves and other deep-state players. That's just the biz as usual. We know where their sympathies lie by their sedition against the current government (which you don't have to approve of to see happening)...Hell, Clapper even admitted lying to congress, and Brennan...holy cow, what an obviously warped person. Things rot from the head down, most often. They're just wiping it, like with a cloth.

Re:Destroying evidence

[houghi]

Accountability is an important word. Without it, most of what happens is although not legal, allowed.

If I tell a toddler not to take a cookie and it does and then I do nothing, just repeat that he is not allowed to take another one, what will be the result?
The resulkt is that I am frustrated and that is about it.

So they can easily say "Yeah, we did something illegal ..." Followed by a ".. and what are yopu going to do about it?" Till now nothing has been done. Not really.

Compared to the toddler and his cookies, what we have done is punnish the dog for eating some crumbs that would not be there if no cookies would have been stolen.

I honestly can not blame them. Why should they do things correctly? This way works for them without any serious downside. And voting them away does not help as both parties don't do anything as we have seen in the last 20 and more years.

Re:Alot of records just to hide Trump's Treason

[jamesborr]

Not sure what you are suggesting here -- that the security agencies of the U.S. should secretly and illegally maintain metadata on millions and millions of American citizens on the off chance that these same agencies can cull through this data to target their "enemies"? This just gets to the related problem that there are so many laws currently on the books and since ignorance of the laws is no excuse, that almost anyone can be jailed for breaking one or more of them based on prosecutorial discretion...

NSA claim

[bagofbeans]

So, we have weasel words. Not deleting prior to 2015 CDRs. Not deleting CDRs post 2015 collected under a different permission.

NSA Reports Data Deletion
June 28, 2018

Consistent with NSA's core values of respect for the law, accountability, integrity, and transparency we are making public notice that on May 23, 2018, NSA began deleting all call detail records (CDRs) acquired since 2015 under Title V of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

The Government relies on Title V of FISA to obtain CDRs, which do not include the content of any calls. In accordance with this law, the Government obtains these CDRs, following a specific court-authorized process.

NSA is deleting the CDRs because several months ago NSA analysts noted technical irregularities in some data received from telecommunications service providers. These irregularities also resulted in the production to NSA of some CDRs that NSA was not authorized to receive. Because it was infeasible to identify and isolate properly produced data, NSA concluded that it should not use any of the CDRs. Consequently, NSA, in consultation with the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, decided that the appropriate course of action was to delete all CDRs. NSA notified the Congressional Oversight Committees, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and the Department of Justice of this decision. The Department of Justice, in turn, notified the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The root cause of the problem has since been addressed for future CDR acquisitions, and NSA has reviewed and revalidated its intelligence reporting to ensure that the reports were based on properly received CDRs.

NOOOOOO!

[RavenLrD20k]

Well... there go all my backups!

Re:Samantha Power *MOST* upset

[Zontar The Mindless]

All those hits are for Fox News, the Washington Examiner, ACLJ, CNS, ... all the usual outlets for disinformation.

Get back to us when there's an actual story reported in actual news media.

Trust

[Tenebrousedge]

Anyone's trust in the NSA should be extremely well informed and strictly circumscribed. However, this is the first indication that NSA has any sense of duty to the American people, or respect for the law, so I'm not going to shit on them for it. The larger failure is Congress' inability to defend the rights of American citizens.

MISDIRECTION. Be not DISTRACTED.

[TheRealHocusLocus]

June 25 2018: The Intercept draws attention to buildings they allege contain NSA splitter-taps taps on communications networks, and especial cooperation by AT&T.
June 28 2018: NSA jumps the shark releasing 'limited hang out' claiming they oopsied 685 million 'records' and are deleting them like good Boy Scouts.

The records are supposed to gather attention away from the buildings and the idea of full intercept of gathering of communications. It's a shell game, and you're supposed to think "they were naughty but are sorry and they took care of it." Watch now as the 685 million records eclipse the prior story and the news networks start talking about 'records' and not 'taps'. Mission accomplished.

Senators do this too. Ask them a question about buildings or taps, or the infrastructure for continuous warrantless surveillance, and they'll pretend you asked them about that handy voluntary call record sharing program. Press firmly and they'll do it again. Press harder and they move on to the next question.

More,
>Reddit post on 5EYES and NSA splitters
> Things have got to change, But first, you gotta get mad!
> NSA and the Desolation of Smaug
> I am Sam. Uncle Sam I am.
> I really hated Men In Black
> Am I the first to suggest... BLACKMAIL??
> Sherlock Holmes: training wheels for NSA surveillance
> Stick a fork in the Republic, it's done. HR4681/309 (failed submission)
> The backbone, then (1980s) and now
> Whatever happened to the 'old' NSA? Directive 18?
> Last Wish: The Pact (dystopian fiction)

Re:Lock Him Up...with Trump's Campaign Manager!

[Joce640k]

I want to know how the "USA Freedom Act" is what allows them to record everybody's phone calls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

MOD PARENT UP

[Ungrounded Lightning]

What they actually did was destroy evidence of their criminal wiretapping enterprise.

I do believe you hit the nail on the head. The jig is up and they're trying to CYA.

I'd mod you up myself but I'm out of mod points just now,

$0.50 army

[Reverend Green]

Whoa - the fifty cent armies are out in force for this one! 100+ idiotic posts arguing back & forth about TRUMP!!!!!11!!!! All posted by the same two astroturfers, using augmented trolling software to circumvent Slashdot's antispam features.

Nice topic dilution, gentlemen - well done!
https://cryptome.org/2012/07/g...

BTW: does anyone know the name of the software tool(s) used by these astroturfers?