NSA tracks phone locations under executive order

The National Security Agency uses its authority under a 1981 executive order signed by President Ronald Reagan to collect cellphone location data around the world, the agency said.

Congress never authorized the program, but an NSA spokeswoman argued that the collection does not violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which outlines certain NSA powers. The NSA collects nearly five billion records every day on the locations of cellphones in other countries. The NSA issued a new statement providing more details about the program. It said the program is operated under Executive Order 12333, which was issued by President Reagan and governs surveillance in other countries. The NSA spokeswoman said the agency "tries to avoid" collecting Americans' cellphone location information. "Again, the Agency's EO 12333 collection is outward-facing. We are not intentionally acquiring domestic information through this capability," the spokeswoman said. She said that if the agency does incidentally collect the location information of an American, analysts apply "minimization procedures," and in some cases, destroy the records.