Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board gives high marks to spying reforms

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) gave a positive assessment to the Obama Administration’s efforts to reform federal spying powers, saying the government has started to enact reforms addressing each of the nearly two dozen recommendations it made two years ago, on the heels of Edward Snowden’s leaks about American surveillance. “[I]mportant measures have been taken to enhance the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties and to strengthen the transparency of the government’s surveillance efforts, without jeopardizing our counterterrorism efforts,” the bipartisan five-member board said.