FISA grants NSA three-month window to collect phone snoop-data

The US secret court has reportedly granted the National Security Agency three-month window to collect surveillance data on all Americans' phone calls.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has decided to allow the NSA to continue its collection of metadata as part of the recently exposed mass surveillance programmes.

Spokesman for the director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Shawn Turner said that it is the administration's view, consistent with the recent holdings of the US District Courts, as well as the findings of 15 judges of the FISA on 36 separate occasions over the past seven years, that the telephony metadata collection program is lawful, The Washington Times reports.

Recently, a federal judge in the District of Columbia called the alleged snooping on phone calls as 'Orwellian technology' and questioned its constitutionality, while another judge presented contrasting opinion and defended the programme.

Turner further said that the Obama administration is willing to consider changes to the NSA program while still maintaining its operational benefits.

According to the report, under the phone call collection programme, the NSA collects the time, duration and parties involved in most calls placed within the US and stores the data for five years based on the nature of investigation.