Hold onto your hats, the White House has announced that it will…announce reforms to the National Security Agency and its surveillance programs. President Obama will address the issue in a speech next Friday. Though no final decisions have been released, Obama may move to curtail the collection of U.S. citizens’ phone records and restrict surveillance of friendly foreign leaders, according to the Associated Press.
The hotly anticipated speech comes after months of meetings with top lawmakers, privacy advocates and tech executives, as well as a broad review of the NSA commissioned by the president. That review panel recommended dozens of changes to the country’s surveillance practices, including banning the government from undermining data encryption and stripping the NSA of its power to collect bulk phone data. In case you missed it, you can read the full digest of recommendations, which came out in December, over at The Guardian.
