The National Security Agency, facing lawsuits over its surveillance programs, says that the system is too complex to stop it from deleting data that can be used against the agency in court.
The government's explanation raises more concerns, said Cindy Cohn, EFF's legal director. "To me, it demonstrates that once the government has custody of this information even they can't keep track of it anymore even for purposes of what they don't want to destroy," she said in an interview.