Obama optimistic about changes to NSA phone data collection

President Barack Obama yesterday said he believes the plan his administration has given him to address concerns about the National Security Agency's widespread collection of Americans' phone data is "workable," and he hopes Congress will move to enact it.

Speaking at a nuclear summit in The Hague, Obama said the plan should alleviate "core concerns" about the government storing massive amounts of data on Americans' phone calls.

The White House is preparing a proposal that would end the government's "bulk collection" of such data, Obama said, while preserving its ability to gain information about terrorists who might be plotting an attack against the United States.

The plan, senior officials said, would allow data about phone calls made to and from Americans to be kept with the phone companies. The companies would not be required to hold the data longer than they normally would.

Obama stressed that the plan would ensure that "a judge is looking at each individual" phone number to make sure it is linked to a suspected terrorist organization before phone companies are asked to search their records for data about the number. Such prior judicial approval of queries is considered a key requisite by privacy advocates.

The proposal, which is still being finalized, would require phone companies to make data available on a real-time, ongoing basis -- an idea embraced by NSA leaders, officials said.

The administration effort comes as the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee have drafted a bipartisan bill that would also end the NSA's mass gathering of data. Their measure would also keep the records at the phone companies.

But some privacy advocates are already expressing opposition to the House proposal, which does not call for judicial approval of a specific phone number before a request for data is submitted to a company.

"If there is no judicial authorization beforehand, I don't see the civil liberties community getting behind it," said Harley Geiger, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology.

Both the administration's and the House lawmakers' proposals would allow data up to two "hops" from a target to be collected. That means all the numbers connected to the suspect number, and all the numbers connected to that first set of connections.

With McClatchy