“The head of the National Security Agency on Thursday told Senate lawmakers that preventing his agency from collecting Americans’ information in bulk would make it harder to do its job,” according to The Hill .  

“Under questioning before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Adm. Michael Rogers agreed that ending bulk collection would ‘significantly reduce [his] operational capabilities.’… In response to the NSA head’s comments, Wyden pointed to a 2013 White House review group, which found that one controversial NSA bulk collection program ‘was not essential to preventing attacks’ and that the information obtained by the NSA ‘could readily have been obtained in a timely manner using’ other means.”  

“Though the phone records database has been the NSA’s most prominent bulk collection program, it is not the only one. The agency’s collection of vast amounts of Internet data has alarmed many privacy advocates and is the target of a current lawsuit from Wikipedia and the American Civil Liberties Union.”