US phone companies refuse to store data for NSA

President Barack Obama's plan to curb the National Security Agency's mass storage of phone data is already facing resistance.

Obama last week suggested that he was open to the idea of requiring phone companies to store the records and allowing the government to search them under strict guidelines.

According to CNET, major phone companies argue that being required to store metadata for an extended period of time for the NSA would be costly, time consuming, and risky.

The NSA's bulk collection of phone metadata, which it legally justifies under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, was revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the report said.

While courts are split about the legality of the surveillance program, the NSA is currently allowed to store phone data for up to five years.

'No way', an unnamed industry executive, said. Apparently, some phone companies aren't too keen on storing data for the NSA.

One major carrier estimated that it would cost 'in the range of 50 million dollars a year to maintain a five-year, searchable database, the report said.

The companies and security experts said that the stored records would become an attractive target for hackers.