Washington---US spy agencies will expunge intelligence on foreigners gleaned from phone or email intercepts after five years, unless it has security value, according to a policy review released Tuesday.
Two years after whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed a vast overseas digital dragnet that snared, among others, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the US government said it is changing how it handles the trove of intel.
"We have imposed new limitations on the retention of personal information about non-US persons," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced.
"Now intelligence community elements must delete non-US person information collected through SIGINT five years after collection," it added, referring to signals intelligence, or the gathering of information from signals and other communication.
The review was requested by President Barack Obama, who hosts Merkel next week at the White House.
Obama was reportedly unaware that the leaders of allied nations were being bugged, and ordered the practice to stop.
The shift brings retention of foreigners' data into line with existing rules for US citizens, but will likely be seen as not going far enough by privacy advocates.
"Our signals intelligence activities must take into account that all persons have legitimate privacy interests," said Obama homeland security and counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco.
"At the same time, we must ensure that our intelligence community has the resources and authorities necessary for the United States to advance its national security and foreign policy interests."
Civil liberties activists said the new guidelines don't go far enough, failing to change the practice of bulk collection of telephone records, among other things.
Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University said the reforms still leave loopholes for surveillance.
"The reforms highlighted in this report are positive steps as far as they go, but the Snowden disclosures revealed that we need a fundamental course correction," Goitein said.
"As long as the government is collecting Americans' telephone records, listening to their phone calls, and reading their e-mails without any suspicion of wrongdoing, the gulf between our constitutional values and the government's surveillance practices remains."
Legal researcher Megan Graham, who writes for the Just Security blog, said the plan leaves "large exceptions that appear to allow the government to escape the restrictions with relative ease."
AFP
