Security News > 2020 > September > NSA Mass Surveillance Program Illegal, U.S. Court Rules

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled that the controversial National Security Agency mass surveillance program exposed in 2013 was illegal - and may have even been unconstitutional.

The call comes seven years after former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden outed the mass surveillance program, which enabled snooping in on millions of American's phone calls, in a bombshell leak that drew widespread worries about privacy.

Rep. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, for instance said that the NSA surveillance program had stopped more than 50 terrorist attacks.

The NSA for its part echoed claims program had helped foil terrorist attacks, pointing to a specific case against Basaaly Moalin, a Somali immigrant who was convicted of conspiring to support terrorist group al-Shabaab.

Alex Abdo, litigation director with Knight First Amendment Institute, noted on Twitter that the court held that the government must provide notice to criminal defendants prosecuted with evidence that's been derived from NSA surveillance - in "Perhaps the court's most unprecedented and therefore significant move."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/nsa-mass-surveillance-program-illegal-u-s-court-rules/158924/