Mozilla warns against data-storage rules in NSA reform

Mozilla warned against a government policy that could require phone companies to hold on to customer data longer than their business purposes require. Advocates for National Security Agency reform have cautioned against such a measure for the past year. Lawmakers are considering ending the government’s bulk collection of US phone records in exchange for a system where officials could search records stored with the private companies themselves with approval from the surveillance court. The data retention provision did not make it into reform bills in 2014, including one in the Senate that narrowly failed on a procedural vote. Mozilla’s director of public policy, Chris Riley, wants it to stay that way. In addition to Mozilla’s data retention stance, it also outlined three other principles in the debate: a strict ban on bulk collection, sufficient transparency and no new surveillance powers.