Obama bids to beef up NSA privacy safeguards

President Barack Obama trimmed the powers of the secretive US eavesdropping agency by calling for new privacy safeguards, but allowed bulk phone data sweeps to continue as an anti-terror tool.

In a long-awaited speech outlining changes to programs exposed by Edward Snowden, Obama also said he had halted National Security Agency (NSA) spy taps targeting friendly world leaders.

He also proposed new protections for foreigners caught in US data collection programs, which harvest hundreds of millions of pages of data on telephone calls, internet use and text messages across the globe.

“Given the unique power of the state, it is not enough for leaders to say: trust us, we won’t abuse the data we collect,” Obama said in a speech at the US Justice Department.

Obama’s proposals seemed to represent a search for a compromise between demands of civil liberties advocates — who see all bulk data collection as unconstitutional — and resistance from the US intelligence community.

At the heart of the changes is a commitment from the president to end the NSA’s hoarding of telephone “metadata” detailing the duration and destination of calls but not content.

“I believe critics are right to point out that without proper safeguards, this type of program could be used to yield more information about our private lives, and open the door to more intrusive, bulk collection programs,” Obama said.

“I believe we need a new approach. 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 we need without the government holding this bulk metadata.”

Obama called on attorney general Eric Holder and the NSA to come up with alternative ways to hold the data within 60 days.

Possible alternatives include keeping data with telecommunications firms that are currently compelled to turn it over to the NSA or to deposit it with a third party.

Phone companies have, however, balked at involvement.

Obama also said that from now on, NSA agents would have to require court permission before accessing data on a specific target of interest, for instance in an anti-terror investigation.

The NSA will also now only be permitted to access call data from people at two removes from a terror suspect. Previously it could probe three “hops” beyond a suspect call.