Revealed: Sprint challenged NSA in 2009
Years before Edward Snowden pulled back the curtain on the National Security Agency (NSA), the spy agency shared the legal basis behind its phone data collection with Sprint.
Top-secret documents released by the Obama administration on Wednesday show that the phone company asked for details about the contested NSA program in 2009, well before it was made public through Snowden's leaks.
To avoid a formal legal challenge to the program, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees the NSA, allowed the government to discuss the legal basis of the program with the company in 2010. It also extended the time period for Sprint to continue “ongoing discussions” before filing a petition, “in the parties’ mutual interests in avoiding litigation.”
After that, the firm dropped its protests.
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/206161-court-docs-sprint-questioned-nsa-program#ixzz31nKOY9rc
