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.

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.

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!