The National Security Agency Office of the Inspector General (NSA OIG) announced today its release of an unclassified study with disturbing conclusion: the secretive agency is not in compliance with legal requirements it to dispose of signals intelligence data.
As exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA collects massive amounts of information (“metadata”) about the electronic communications of U.S. citizens. If this information is not needed for any law enforcement purpose after a specified time period (up to five years) the NSA is supposed to get ride of it. That’s not happening, according to the IG report.
The report notes that data retentions are imposed ” to protect civil liberties and individual privacy.”
“In order to be compliant, NSA must ensure an adequate system of internal compliance controls has been implemented. Conversely, noncompliance could impact civil liberties and privacy protections and lead to constraints from overseers on NSA SIGINT authorities.”
The IG says NSA has keep some data past the required deadlines for “aging off” and NSA officials are working from outdated policy guidelines. The bottom line, says the IG, “the deficiencies we identified have the potential to impact civil liberties and individual privacy.”