Obama orders curbs on NSA data use

WASHINGTON. President Barack Obama has banned US eavesdropping on the leaders of allied countries and started reining in the vast collection of Americans’ phone data.Obama annouced the series of reforms on Friday, which were triggered by Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013.In a major speech, Obama took steps to reassure Americans and foreigners alike that the United States will take privacy concerns into account in the future.Former US spy contractor Snowden made damaging revelations about the sweeping monitoring activities of the NSA, sparking national and international concerns over personal privacy.“The reforms I’m proposing today should give the American people greater confidence that their rights are being protected, even as our intelligence and law enforcement agencies maintain the tools they need to keep us safe,” he said.EavesdroppingObama promised that the US would not eavesdrop on the heads of state or government of close friends and allies to the US, which a senior administration official said would apply to dozens of leaders. The step was designed to smooth frayed relations between, for example, the US and Germany after reports surfaced last year that the NSA had monitored the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff postponed a state visit to Washington to protest against US surveillance tactics. “The leaders of our close friends and allies deserve to know that if I want to learn what they think about an issue, I will pick up the phone and call them, rather than turning to surveillance,” Obama said.Obama is trying to balance public anger at the disclosure of intrusion into Americans’ privacy with his commitment to retain policies he considers critical to protecting the US.He argued that the US is held to a higher standard than other nations. “No one expects China to have an open debate about their surveillance programmes, or Russia to take the privacy concerns of citizens into account”, he said. However, he added that the US has a “special obligation” to re-examine its intelligence capabilities because of the potential for trampling on civil liberties.The steps Obama put in motion are aimed at adapting regulations to keep up with rapid changes in surveillance technology that permit NSA analysts to monitor private communications globally.Among the list of reforms was a call on Congress to establish an outside panel of privacy advocates for the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court that considers terrorism cases.The former chief judge of the FISA court had opposed such a step. While the speech was designed to address concerns that US surveillance has gone too far, Obama’s measures were seen to be relatively limited.