The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that US authorities must obtain a warrant to tap cellphone towers for personal location data, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said in a court document.
"This ruling destroys NSA program Treasure Map," Binney said on Friday. "This is their program to locate every device on the network all the time."
As a result of the decision, Binney added, perhaps the Supreme Court will not be "bamboozled" by lies from the NSA, FBI, and Justice Department related to collecting and using content and meta-data on US citizens.
Senator Patrick Leahy said in a press release on Friday that the Supreme Court rescued Congress from a failed attempt to protect cellphone users from government snoopers.
William Binney worked for the NSA for 36 years, retiring in 2001 as the technical director of world military and geopolitical analysis and reporting. He designed and created many of the NSA’s collection systems and later exposed major aspects of the agency’s blanket surveillance programs.
