After more than six months of constant NSA leaks, President Barack Obama announced a series of what senior administration officials referred to as "the most significant" reforms to surveillance programs since Obama took office.
In some ways, Obama's proposals were more aggressive than rumors indicated. While recognizing that the NSA bulk collection programs were not abused, Obama said the NSA should not hold the database of virtually all phone calls made by Americans, and ordered a series of other changes across the board.
See also: The NSA and Your iPhone: What You Need to Know
Obama recognized that the phone metadata program has "never been subject to public debate," and that's why it needs to change.
"I believe we need a new approach," Obama said at a press conference at the Department of Justice on Friday. "I am therefore ordering a transition that will end the section 215 bulk metadata program as it currently exists, and establish a mechanism that preserves the capabilities that we need without the government holding this bulk matadata."
Below, take a look at the most significant proposals outlined in Obama's speech:
Changes to the telephone metadata program. The controversial telephone metadata program, which stems from Section 125 of the Patriot Act, will still exist. But Obama doesn't want the NSA to hold the database of phone metadata as it currently is. He didn't name who will hold that information instead; he will ask the attorney general, the NSA and the rest of the intelligence community to propose ideas for alternative approaches in 60 days, such as giving telecom companies the database or assigning it to a third party.
No more queries without judicial approval. The NSA won't be able to make a query or a search within the phone metadata database without prior approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), the secretive court that oversees NSA surveillance programs. Until this point, an NSA analyst could search within the database freely.
Searches stop at two hops. An NSA analyst will no longer be able to search the database going beyond two hops, or connections between telephone numbers. That means the analyst will only be able to query a phone number's connections and the connections coming out of that first number.
More protections against incidental surveillance. Right now, Americans' information can be collected incidentally as part of the NSA's PRISM program that collects a vast amount of foreign communications data. Obama said he wants more protections to avoid this incidental collection, and it will be up to the attorney general and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to figure out how to make that happen.
Transparency at FISA Court. The opinions of the FISC with broad privacy implications must be more transparent. With that goal in mind, Obama will ask the attorney general and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to annually review the opinions with broad privacy implications for declassification. This does not, however, affect every single decision by the FISC when an individual surveillance request is made.
National Security Letters will be more transparent. Obama doesn't want NSLs, which are used by the FBI to obtain a vast array of information about a target, to remain secret anymore. Until now, a business that receives these letters, such as an Internet or telephone provider, can't disclose the NSL's existence to the target. Obama is asking the attorney general to reform how NSLs are handled, and in every case, the government will need to establish the need for secrecy. Obama did not endorse requiring the FBI to gain judicial approval before issuing an NSL.
More freedom for Internet and phone providers. Obama will ease restrictions on providers to disclose more national security-related requests that they have received from the government. This change specifically addresses complaints from Google, Facebook and other tech giants, asking for permission to publish more detailed numbers of government requests.
Independent panel of advocates at FISC. Obama wants Congress to establish a panel of outside civil liberties advocates and technologists that will have a voice at the FISC. This panel will not participate in every decision to authorize a certain surveillance operation; rather, they will be asked to participate when the court has to render broader decisions related to privacy and how the NSA conducts its surveillance.
Surveillance on foreign targets. Obama is putting an end to the surveillance of heads of state and leaders of allied countries, and will give foreigners more privacy protections. The attorney general and the DNI, again, will be tasked with coming up with the specifics of this proposal.
In December, an independent review panel appointed by the Obama administration released a report outlining 46 recommendations to reform the NSA surveillance programs. Among the most important changes, the panel suggested ending the bulk collection of American's phone records, moving the calls database to telephone companies or a third party, giving privacy rights to foreigners, and curtailing the surveillance conducted on leaders from allied countries (like German Chancellor Angela Merkel).
The panel found that the NSA's storage of a large database of American's phone metadata "creates potential risks to public trust, personal privacy, and civil liberty."
Critics have repeatedly questioned the usefulness of the program. Earlier this week, an independent study concluded both the bulk telephone metadata program and PRISM have had a "minimal" impact in investigating 225 terror cases in the U.S., contrary to claims from both Obama and NSA Chief Gen. Keith Alexander claimed before.
The White House also released a policy directive outlining some of the proposed changes. The directive is embedded below.
White House Directive on Obama's NSA Reform

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