As President Obama tightens surveillance guidelines, uncertainty lingers on NSA program

The Obama Administration announced a series of modest steps to strengthen privacy protections for Americans and foreigners in US intelligence-gathering, including an end to the indefinite gag order on certain subpoenas issued to companies for customers’ personal data.The steps announced by the Administration are aimed at increasing transparency and privacy in an effort to rebuild public trust that was eroded in the wake of the Snowden disclosures. At the same time, officials want to maintain “operational capabilities” needed to protect the nation and its allies. Under the new measures, the FBI will lift indefinite gag orders on companies that receive administrative subpoenas, known as national security letters. NSLs are issued by a senior law enforcement official without a judge’s sign-off and require the recipient to turn over data such as a customer’s credit-card transactions, billing records and data on when and to whom an e-mail was sent or a phone call made. The gag order will now be dropped after three years or when an investigation ends, whichever comes first.