USA: Patriotic Act surveillance provision expires

Provisions of the Patriotic Act, giving surveillance powers to the National Security Agency (NSA), temporarily expired as the Senate failed to vote for its extension in its current form, in Washington on Sunday. Minority leader Senator Harry Reid said that not replacing the act would mean “disarming completely and arbitrarily based on a campaign of disinformation” and could not be considered an acceptable outcome. While Reid does not quite agree with an amended bill either, he believes it is now the "only realistic way forward." The NSA used the Patriotic Act to collect phone data from millions of Americans; if the amended bill is passed, phone records would be stored by telecom companies and access to surveillance programmes would be limited.