Watchdog Finds NSA Net Surveillance Effective, Sounds Constitutional Warning

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has found that a set of National Security Agency programs that collect vast amounts of Internet communications from US companies has proved to be an effective intelligence tool, but that some aspects bordered on unconstitutionality. The NSA need better safeguards for protecting Americans' communications scooped up in the process. Those findings were unanimous, but four members of the five-person board split over how much to limit spy-agency searches for Americans' communications within NSA's trove, with one member not weighing in.