The US House of Representatives approved late yesterday evening a bill that would restrict the electronic surveillance powers of the National Security Agency (NSA).The margin was wide, 293 to 123, for the bill attached to the defense budget for 2015, which begins October 1.For now, however, the bill will have no effect on the NSA as it has not been debated by the Senate.
But the message from the lower house is clear.
It wants to embrace a court ruling and bar the National Security Agency from using personal electronic information from US citizens without a prior court order.
As it currently stands, under the so-called Prism program, the NSA focuses on foreign targets on the Internet via Facebook, Gmail and other services.
