NSA Reportedly Opposes Congress' Attempts to Curb Its Spying on US Citizens

US National Security Agency (NSA) officials have been making attempts to thwart an effort by American lawmakers to effectively prevent the agency from tracking US citizens domestically without a warrant.

The amendment in question, brought forth by House Representatives Warren Davidson and Sara Jacobs, would essentially bar US agencies such as the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency from “purchasing data that would otherwise require a warrant, court order, or subpoena” to procure, according to a US media outlet that first reported on this matter.

The amendment has already been approved by the House during the consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), though it remains to be seen which policies are going to be included in the Senate version of this bill, the media outlet points out.

Now, NSA officials have been reportedly approaching lawmakers and trying to convince them to oppose the aforementioned amendment.

While the NSA previously did confirm that it uses data obtained from “commercial” sources for cyber defense purposes, it was not immediately clear to what extent it uses such means to procure the data on people’s location and web-browsing, the media outlet notes, adding that the agency did not respond to their multiple requests for comment.

A declassified Office of the Director of National Intelligence report that made headlines in the United States last month also confirmed that US intelligence and spy agencies do buy large amounts of commercially available data on US citizens, including web browsing information and data from smartphones.