Obama Defends Data Spying as Modest Privacy Encroachment

President Barack Obama defended classified programs to collect data on U.S. residents’ telephone calls and foreign nationals’ Internet activity as “modest encroachments” on privacy legally authorized by Congress and essential to thwarting terrorist attacks.

“In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother, and how this is a potential program run amok,” Obama told an audience in San Jose, California. “But when you actually look at the details, then I think we’ve struck the right balance.”