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U.S. House rejects proposal to strip considerable power from NSA

The NSA's data collection program will continue for at least another day (and then some).
Written by Rachel King, Contributor
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The U.S. House of Representatives has rejected a measure that would strip considerable power from the National Security Agency -- specifically concerning collecting data from phone records.

The House voted 217-205 on Wednesday against a proposal from Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) challenging the federal agency's authority.

That authority has been hotly debated by lawmakers, the global media, and the public at large since news broke in early June about PRISM, a secret data mining scheme led by the NSA.

See also: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court asserts authority over phone records

The program involved monitoring data from nine of the top tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Many of them (notably Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft) have publicly denounced the PRISM program revealed through PowerPoint slides leaked to The Guardian and The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is now on the run from the U.S. Government.

These companies have also denied any direct involvement, or "back door" to user data — a catchphrase that has been debated by both sides of the fence, as well as within the media.

Yahoo took things a step further to clear its name, petitioning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington, D.C., to declassify documents from a specific classified case in 2008.

Yahoo won that motion earlier in July. the U.S. government has until the end of the month to report back on when it will be able to complete its review of the documents in order to declassify them.

via The Associated Press

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