NSA Officially Ends Bulk Phone Metadata Collection Under USA Freedom Act

The NSA officially ended its bulk collection of Americans’ telephone metadata at 11:59 PM on November 29, 2015, as required by the USA Freedom Act passed by Congress in June 2015. The program, which had operated under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act since 2006, systematically collected records of nearly every phone call made in the United States, creating a database of who called whom, when, and for how long, though not the content of conversations.

The USA Freedom Act, passed after extensive debate sparked by Edward Snowden’s June 2013 revelations, banned bulk collection and established a new targeted system where telephone records remain with telecommunications companies rather than in government databases. Under the new framework, the NSA must obtain an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) based on a “specific selection term” identifying a specific person, account, or device before querying phone company records. Companies retain the data and provide only responsive records to government requests, a fundamental shift from the previous system where NSA held comprehensive databases of all American phone records.

The program’s termination represented the most significant surveillance reform since 9/11 and vindicated Snowden’s core claims about unconstitutional mass surveillance. Multiple courts, including the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, had ruled that the bulk collection program exceeded the statutory authority of Section 215 and likely violated the Fourth Amendment. The program had operated in complete secrecy until Snowden’s disclosures, with even most members of Congress unaware of its scope despite nominal oversight responsibilities.

Intelligence officials had defended bulk collection as essential for counterterrorism, claiming it enabled analysts to identify previously unknown connections between terrorists. However, a comprehensive review found the program had not been essential to preventing any terrorist attacks, with most cited successes achievable through traditional targeted surveillance. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concluded in 2014 that the program raised serious constitutional concerns and recommended its termination.

The transition represented a partial victory for privacy advocates while leaving significant surveillance authorities intact. The NSA retained authority to collect bulk internet metadata under different legal authorities, continued mass surveillance of non-U.S. persons abroad, and maintained extensive cooperation with allied intelligence services through programs like PRISM. The reform demonstrated that even after unprecedented revelations of constitutional violations, the surveillance state would surrender only those programs that had been definitively exposed and legally challenged, while preserving maximum collection authorities under remaining legal frameworks.