Yesterday's report from the independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, or PCLOB, confirms what Christopher Sprigman and I said back in June of last year in our New York Times Op Ed “The Criminal NSA”. The NSA’s telephone record metadata program, in which it collects the calling records of almost everyone inside the United States, is illegal. Amend that: it’s screamingly illegal. Flat out. Not even a close call. The program is also a serious threat to civil liberties, but first things first – the NSA’s massive program of telephone spying is illegal. For more on our reaction to the report, click here.
