US President Barack Obama will announce reforms to US surveillance programmes in a speech on January 17, the White House said on Friday.
Obama was seriously considering extending privacy protections from broad surveillance to non-US citizens and changes to the National Security Agency’s mass collection of US telephone records, among other changes, unnamed officials told the Wall Street Journal.
The reforms were among those suggested last month by a review panel charged with making recommendations by Obama. It urged the United States to take “significant steps” to protect the privacy of foreign citizens and re-evaluate its surveillance of foreign leaders.
The review also recommended US spy agencies no longer store mass records on US telephone calls. Telephone information should instead be stored by private companies or third parties, for the government to query only when necessary for national security purposes.
Spokesman Jay Carney did not provide details about what changes Obama would announce, but said the goal was to “take measures that create more transparency, introduce reforms that improve the system in a way that gives the American people more confidence.” Revelations about the breadth of spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) has prompted Obama to order a review of intelligence practices. He has been studying recommendations on proposed reforms from his review panel since last month.
The White House has said it was deciding which proposals to adopt as well as which might merit further study. Carney on Thursday called Obama’s adoption of recommendations “a milestone” in the process, but noted more work would remain to be done.
This week Obama met with members of Congress, as well as a government-appointed privacy board and intelligence officials, to gather input about reforms. White House officials were also meeting with technology industry officials on Friday.
Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden since June about the mass collection of telephone and internet data provoked outrage from US allies and lawmakers and civil libertarians within the US.
Revelations that the NSA had tapped mobile phones of world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, further damaged US relations with key allies.