Reports: NSA collects less data than thought
WASHINGTON – The National Security Agency collects less than 30 percent of calling data from Americans despite the agency’s massive daily efforts to sweep up the bulk of U.S. phone records, two U.S. newspapers reported Friday.
Citing anonymous officials and sources, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal both said the NSA’s phone data collection has had a steep drop-off since 2006. According to the newspapers, the government has been unable to keep pace since then with a national surge in cellphone usage and dwindling landline use by American consumers.
The Post said the NSA takes in less than 30 percent of all call data; the Journal said it is about or less than 20 percent. In either case, the figures are far below the amount of phone data collected in 2006, when the government extracted nearly all of U.S. calling records, both newspapers reported.
California bill to seek cellphone ‘kill switch’
SAN FRANCISCO – Legislation unveiled Friday in California would require smartphones and other mobile devices to have a “kill switch” to render them inoperable if lost or stolen, a move that could be the first of its kind in the country.
State Sen. Mark Leno, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and other elected and law enforcement officials said the bill, if passed, would require mobile devices sold in or shipped to California to have the anti-theft devices starting next year.
Leno, a San Francisco Democrat, and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, co-authored the bill to be introduced this spring. They joined Gascon, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and other authorities who have been demanding manufacturers create kill switches to combat surging smartphone theft across the country.
Vatican strikes back at U.N. committee
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican struck back Friday at a U.N. human rights committee that issued a scathing report on sex abuse by priests, accusing it of straying beyond its mandate and discrediting the U.N. as a whole by adopting the “prejudiced” positions of anti-Catholic advocacy groups.
The Vatican said the U.N. committee had ignored both the Holy See’s unique status and its efforts to address the abuse crisis in recent years, noting it had provided this information to the committee in writing and in person. It blasted what it called the “absolutely anomalous” publicity the committee gave its report and promised a full response at a later date.
Associated Press
