Photo Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The White House promised Friday that it was ending the NSA’s most controversial surveillance program “as it currently exists.” But make no mistake, it’s still going to exist.

In fact, what President Obama has announced will have little operational effect on the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ data. And, significantly, the administration has attempted to dodge some of the biggest decisions, passing the ball to Congress, which will likely do nothing if recent trends hold.

Much of the attention in the run-up to the speech involved the NSA’s retention and search of so-called metadata—calling records, including calls made by U.S. citizens, that help the government identify potential terrorist relationships. And the president didn’t come close to what privacy advocates have wanted—a sharp culling of the program or its outright termination.

Instead, the goal of Friday’s announcement —as it has always been—was to reassure a skittish public both here and abroad that the program is being used responsibly. “This is a capability that needs to be preserved,” a senior administration official said.

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Photo Credit: AP

By Edward-Isaac Dovere.

Many of the people most interested in what President Barack Obama had to say about surveillance reform Friday were watching from thousands of miles away, far beyond American borders.

Their verdict — at least, based on early international reaction — was unimpressed. Foreign officials who’ve been engaged in these issues overseas say what Obama said, and what he didn’t, left them concerned that he won’t follow through with much that matters — and that some of what he’s proposed may lead to still more problems.

And while they were glad to see Obama finally addressing a topic he’s promised to for months, they say the changes look to them too modest in scope, leaving most international citizens with no more clarity about their own standing under American surveillance regulations than they had before the speech.

Obama framed American data collection as an essential tool for the security of Americans and their allies that needed to be addressed in light of the revelations and criticisms over the past year to rebuild confidence overseas.

“Just as we balance security and privacy at home, our global leadership demands that we balance our security requirements against our need to maintain the trust and cooperation among people and leaders around the world,” Obama said.

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

By Julian Hattem.

Privacy rights advocates and tech companies on Friday dismissed President Obama’s proposed overhaul of government surveillance as preserving the status quo.

They had wanted Obama to deliver a full-throated renouncement of the National Security Agency’s snooping practices and say he instead gave them half-measures that leave the programs virtually untouched.

“Overall, the strategy seems to be to leave current intelligence processes largely intact and improve oversight to a degree,” wrote Alex Fowler and Chris Riley, top executives at Mozilla. “We’d hoped for, and the Internet deserves, more.

“Without a meaningful change of course, the Internet will continue on its path toward a world of balkanization and distrust, a grave departure from its origins of openness and opportunity.”

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