US judge tells NSA it must keep phone surveillance records
US spy agency barred from destroying data that privacy group says is relevant in lawsuits
The US National Security Agency was blocked by a judge from carrying out plans this week to begin destroying phone records collected for surveillance after a privacy group argued they are relevant to lawsuits claiming the practice is unconstitutional.
US district judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco ordered the agency on Monday to retain the records, and scheduled a hearing for March 19 on whether they can be destroyed.
The NSA had planned to dispose of the records following a March 7 ruling by the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (Fisa) Court in Washington.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an internet privacy group based in San Francisco, asked White for a temporary restraining order, saying the records may be used as evidence in its lawsuits challenging NSA spying and are covered under preservation orders in those cases.
The NSA was prohibited from destroying "any telephone metadata or 'call detail' records", White said on Monday.
The surveillance court, in its ruling, barred the NSA from keeping the records for more than five years because the privacy rights of the people whose phone data was swept up by the agency trump the need for the information in litigation.