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Curated research library of TV news clips regarding the NSA, its oversight and privacy issues, 2009-2014

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Primary curation & research: Robin Chin, Internet Archive TV News Researcher; using Internet Archive TV News service.

Speakers

Keith Alexander
General, Director of the National Security Agency, Chief of the Central Security Service and Commander of the United States Cyber Command.
LINKTV 08/02/2013
Video from Aspen Security Forum: Williams: One other question about privacy, and read your statement from a former NSA employee named William Binney who recently told a hackers conference the NSA is putting together dossiers on every US citizen, listing who we have relations with, what our activities are. Is there any truth to that and why do stories like this persist that you are spying on all of us? Alexander: First of all It’s not true.,
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Pete Williams
NBC News Justice Correspondent
KNTV 06/25/2014
Pete Williams: Writing for a strikingly unanimous court, Chief Justice Roberts said many of the more than 90% of the American adults who have a cell phone keep on their person a digital record of nearly every aspect of theirs lives, from the mundane to the intimate. To search one, the court said, police must get a warrant unless there's a genuine emergency. A huge victory for advocates of privacy in the digital age. Shapiro: Just because the police pull you over for speeding, doesn’t mean they should have access to your entire life. Your medical records, your bank records, your photo albums, everything about your life that people now carry around with them in their phone.
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Pete Williams
NBC News Justice Correspondent
KNTV 06/25/2014
Pete Williams: The nation's police arrest 13 million people every year, mostly for minor offenses. And for a century the courts have said police can search people they arrest to look for weapons and evidence of a crime. But today's ruling said cell phones are vastly different. Pete Williams: But today's ruling said cell phones are vastly different. They contain so much the court said, that searching one would typically reveal far more than even searching someone’s house. For example, it said the phrase, “there's an app for that, “ is now part of the language. And that apps a person selects can reveal everything from political affiliation to pregnancy. The justices said today's decision will have an impact on police because phones can reveal whether someone was selling drugs or even speeding or texting while driving. But the court said, privacy comes at a cost.
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Pete Williams
NBC News Justice Correspondent
KNTV 06/25/2014
Tom Goldstein, Supreme Court Expert: This is the first privacy decision of the digital era. It was almost a shock, the breadth with which the justices were willing to protect private information on computers and cell phones on the internet.
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Pete Williams
NBC News Justice Correspondent
KNTV 06/25/2014
Brian Williams: If the fourth amendment is supposed to give us the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers and effects, if the police need a warrant to search through your phone, what about the NSA? Pete Williams: Well, that's a good question, of course. What the government would say is that when FBI comes to you, they do get a search warrant and that the NSA only finds the information and gives it to the FBI. The government is, also argued that this isn't a search because your phone records, the metadata is already in the company's possession, it's like your toll records and it's not a search. So that's the next case that’s gonna come here. And if this is any kind of a sign, the Supreme Court is going to be very jealous of protecting privacy.
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Brian Williams
Anchor and Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News
KNTV 06/25/2014
Brian Williams: This case wasn't about spying, it was about the cops and whether or not they can search your phone when you're under arrest. The justices seem to know your whole life is detailed on the phone. So no search of the phone without a warrant. It's a rare victory for privacy. We begin with our justice correspondent, Pete Williams. Good evening. Pete Williams: It is surprising and it is unanimous and so bold, and shows this that court which still gives out quill pens to the lawyers who argue here is thoroughly up to date on smartphone technology. So many people now carry cell phones that a supreme court says a visitor from mars might assume they are part of the human anatomy. 12% use them in the shower. But it's what they can hold that made the difference in the ruling.
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Pete Williams
NBC News Justice Correspondent
MSNBCW 05/07/2015
Williams: It went furtherer in some ways and not in others. And that's what sort of interesting about it. What the court said today, this is a three judge panel ruling unanimously. They say I'm sorry the law that the Congress passed doesn't let the government do this. Now what the government is doing is requiring the phone companies to give them what's called the metadata, the records about phone calls, not the contents but numbers dialed, length of call and so forth for every phone call, virtually every phone call in the United States. Now the government says it can do that because The Patriot Act allows them to ask for any tangible record that would be helpful in an investigation. But the court said aha that's the trick. There has to be an investigation. You have to be looking for something specific when you ask for this information. You can't just ask for everything now in the hopes that you'll find something in it later. That is the flaw in the government's argument the court said and that's why it's illegal.
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Pete Williams
NBC News Justice Correspondent
MSNBCW 05/07/2015
Williams: But the three judge panel said we're not going to order the government to stop this because of what you said. Congress is right now debating. Maybe Congress will change the law, the court said. Maybe Congress will give the government the legal authority to do this either to store it itself or to require the phone companies to store the data and hand it over when the government asks. But if that happens, then we'll get to the second question which is whether even if Congress allows it, is it nonetheless unconstitutional. The court didn't go to that question. And that’s why I say it isn’t as sweeping as it could have been.
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Pete Williams
NBC News Justice Correspondent
MSNBCW 05/07/2015
Mitchell: How important is Section 215 and the metadata compared to social media, twitter, newer forms of communication by these terror groups. Williams: Well I think a lot of intelligence people think that where the action is right now is in monitoring e-mails and monitoring social media chat. That's where a lot of the people who’ve been arrested in the U.S. for being ISIS-inspired, that's where that information has come from not so much from the telephone meta data program. The government will continue to want to keep this, Andrea but if they had a choice they'd much rather throw this overboard and keep the ability to monitor those other things.
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Pete Williams
Wall St. Journal, Staff Reporter
MSNBCW 08/28/2015
Williams: 2013, the end of the year, a federal judge said that the program is unconstitutional. this is the bulk data collection the NSA is collecting on all phone calls, the meta data number called and so forth. He put a hold on his ruling and that, the government appealed to the federal court of appeals. And today the court of appeals said we are going to lift that stay, we're going to send the case back to the trial judge to try again. Two of the judges said that the people who sued here don't have any legal right to sue because they can't prove that the NSA was taking their numbers, they are Verizon wireless customers and the only thing the government have admitted to is that Verizon business was collecting the numbers. So the two of the judges say, you know, what -- they got to go back to the judge and see even whether these people have the right to be in court or not. A different two of the three judges said the case should probably be thrown out anyway.
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