This morning’s Guardian features the results of a poll which asked Americans for their thoughts about the NSA’s data collection programs. It found that 59% said they would like to see an end to the mass collection of metadata and phone records. The poll clearly indicates a dissatisfaction with the status quo:
A poll by the Anzalone Liszt Grove Research firm, released Thursday, finds 59% of Americans oppose keeping the NSA’s widespread collection of data unchanged. Twenty-six percent of respondents “strongly” oppose keeping NSA current surveillance in place. A majority of respondents, 57%, say they have “not much” confidence in the government’s ability to prevent abuse of the NSA’s troves of US phone records. Similarly, 58% doubt that the government can keep the data safe from hackers.
Tomorrow, President Obama will address the issue and discuss his thoughts on what changes may need to be made. As we wait for Obama’s announcements, the New York Times took a look back at Obama’s career and examined how his views on surveillance laws have developed:
Aides said that even as a senator, Mr. Obama supported robust surveillance as long as it was legal and appropriate, and that as president he still shares the concerns about overreach he expressed years ago. But they said his views have been shaped to a striking degree by the reality of waking up every day in the White House responsible for heading off the myriad threats he finds in his daily intelligence briefings.
And though tomorrow’s statements may provide some sense of the country’s direction, the Washington Post reports that Obama will let Congress have an important say in future surveillance activities:
Obama has concluded that the program has value as a counterterrorism tool, the officials said, but is also confronting difficult political realities. The program’s sweeping nature has prompted serious privacy concerns, and a divided Congress is unlikely to renew it when the law underpinning the program expires next year.
