The NSA does not collect data on millions of Americans
| The NSA does not collect data on millions of Americans | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "The National Security Agency does not wittingly collect any type of data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." | |
| Domain | Technology & Internet |
| Tactic | Fabrication |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2013 |
| Origin | Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, March 12, 2013, under President Barack Obama |
| Last reviewed | 2026-11-01 |
| Further reading: books on Technology & Internet | |
At a public Senate hearing on March 12, 2013, Senator Ron Wyden asked Director of National Intelligence James Clapper: "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" Clapper answered: "No, sir... not wittingly."
Three months later, documents leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed the NSA was collecting the phone records of millions of Americans every day.
What the evidence shows
- The Verizon order. On June 5, 2013, The Guardian published a secret court order requiring Verizon to hand the NSA metadata on all calls in its system, part of a bulk program covering most US phone records.
- Clapper's explanation. Clapper later said he gave the "least untruthful" answer he could in public, and wrote to the committee apologizing for a "clearly erroneous" response.
- Courts. In May 2015 a federal appeals court ruled in ACLU v. Clapper that the bulk collection program was not authorized by the law cited to justify it. In 2020 another appeals court said it was likely unlawful and possibly unconstitutional.
- Reform. Congress ended the NSA's bulk collection of phone records with the USA Freedom Act in June 2015.
Why it matters
Wyden had been briefed on the program in secret and asked the question to put the truth on the public record. The false answer became central to the debate over surveillance and government candor.
Sources
- US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, open hearing, March 12, 2013.
- ACLU v. Clapper, 785 F.3d 787 (2d Cir. 2015).
- Glenn Greenwald, "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily," The Guardian, June 6, 2013.