US privacy watchdog advises NSA spying is illegal

The bulk collection of phone call data by US intelligence agencies is illegal and has had only "minimal" benefits in preventing terrorism, an independent US privacy watchdog has ruled.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board advised by a 3-2 majority that the programme should end.
In a major speech last week, President Barack Obama said he was ordering curbs on the use of such mass data.
But he said the US must continue collecting data to prevent attacks.
The report from the PCLOB is the latest of several reviews of the National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance programme, the details of which caused widespread anger after they were leaked by Edward Snowden.

Gordon Corera Security correspondent, BBC News

Of all the Snowden revelations, the first - the collection of bulk phone call records - remains the most controversial politically within the US.
The debate centres both on its legality and its effectiveness. President Obama and supporters have claimed it is legal under existing laws and that it has helped in stopping terrorist attacks.
But critics are sceptical of both of these propositions and this latest report will provide them with more ammunition, with questions over what benefits it provides as well as whether it should continue.
President Obama has said he wants to move the holding of the phone records away from NSA, but the signs are that it may prove extremely hard to find someone able to take on such a controversial role. Despite the president's announcements of reform, his headaches over this specific programme do not look to be over.

Washington has argued it is lawful to collect information on phone calls - known as metadata - under a section of the George W Bush-era Patriot Act which gives the FBI the power to demand from businesses information deemed relevant to their investigations.

Sharp divisions But the New York Times, one of several media organisations to have seen the PCLOB report, says three of the five panel members concluded that the NSA spying programme "lacks a viable legal foundation" under the Patriot Act.
It "represents an unsustainable attempt to shoehorn a pre-existing surveillance programme into the text of a statute with which it is not compatible", they said.
The programme also raised constitutional concerns, including "serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value".