Conor Friedersdorf: NSA reforms should go beyond phone calls
Almost 10 months after Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S.
government is spying on virtually all of us, using dragnet
surveillance that tracks and stores all phone numbers we dial,
President Obama has finally issued a proposal for reforming the
National Security Agency.  The NSA would stop the mass
collection of phone data. U.S. phone companies would continue to
keep detailed records of every call that Americans make, and
would be required to provide individual records to federal
authorities should they ever lawfully request them.  And the NSA
would need a court order before it could target a phone number
for surveillance.  Records of all phone calls in America would
also be kept for as little as 18 months, rather than the five
years they're reportedly kept by the NSA. These reforms are
better than nothing. If Congress passes them into law, our
privacy would be better protected than it is now.  Necessary as
they are, however, these reforms are n