Phone Companies, Despite Resistance, Should Hold Metadata, Review Group Tells Congress
Members of Congress wrestled with questions of whether phone companies rather than the federal government should hold onto consumers’ calling metadata. The government currently stockpiles phone metadata for surveillance purposes by its intelligence agencies. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned the five-member surveillance review group that President Barack Obama put together this fall.
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In December, the group recommended in a 300-page report that the White House transition such metadata storage to the phone companies. Obama will announce which recommendations he has accepted this Friday. The group consists of former security adviser Richard Clarke, former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell, former regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, former privacy counselor Peter Swire, and law professor Geoffrey Stone.
"They obviously would rather not hold that data,” Stone said of the phone companies, saying the review group had spoken to telcos and carriers, but “the government should not have possession of this information.” He said there’s always the possibility of someone in government, down the road, seeing the information as a source of “political dirt” or other issues. But the group sees the bulk metadata collection as “useful,” even if putting it in private hands still creates some privacy risks, he said. Critics have worried that private storage of the metadata might create costs and obligations for industry, a contested point.
It’s “absolutely true” that the Patriot Act Section 215 phone surveillance program hasn’t stopped terrorist attacks so far “but it does have the potential to prevent a catastrophic attack on the United States,” Morell said. “It only has to be successful once to be invaluable.” If the government keeps the metadata, “it will eventually be abused,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. “We all know how this movie ends."
"This is an interesting idea perhaps worth investigating,” committee ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in his opening statement of phone companies holding the metadata. “But I'm concerned that it may create as many privacy problems as it solves. Indeed, private companies seem to be allowing their customers’ information to be hacked on what seems like a daily basis.” Grassley expressed concerns that the review group spent such a short time and “lacked important perspective.” None has supervised terrorism investigations at the Justice Department or FBI, he said.
"They're there now. We're not suggesting something new.” Clarke said of the phone companies holding metadata. “Security of those records would have to be paramount, and I believe security can be achieved from hackers.” Clarke rebuffed the idea of bigger hacking risks compared to the having the metadata held by government: “Even NSA can have its information stolen. It’s not just Target and other commercial entities.”
The hearing focused on whether the review group viewed the bulk collection of phone metadata as a program worth keeping, which group members agreed they did. The Senate Intelligence Committee initially thought “the group didn’t want the program to continue” but were unsure based on statements the group members have made, Intelligence Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said during the Senate Judiciary hearing. She’s a member of both committees. She questioned the members on whether they agree on the importance of the program, and they said they align in their views.
House Intelligence Committee member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., introduced the Telephone Metadata Reform Act Tuesday. The legislation would mirror the review group’s recommendation that phone companies hold the metadata rather than government. “For a long time, I've been pushing to have the call records held by phone companies and ‘queried’ on a case-by-case basis, instead of the government’s collecting vast amounts of domestic phone records,” Schiff said in a statement (http://1.usa.gov/1alQOw3).