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‘NSA employees’ tell Seth Meyers how the Patriot Act expiration is affecting them

These government agents are sick of listening to your phone calls.

 

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Tech

Posted on Jun 2, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 5:00 pm CDT

After three significant provisions of the Patriot Act expired on Sunday night, the NSA‘s ability to wiretap U.S. citizens has—supposedly—been curtailed.

In reality, this is more of a symbolic victory for privacy advocates, as the NSA’s surveillance powers are wide-ranging even without the kind of bulk collection revealed by Edward Snowden. But as Seth Meyers proved last night, the NSA is still providing fodder for late-night comedians.

Meyers got the scoop on the agency’s response to recent events from a couple of “NSA agents,” and he was surprised to find out that one of them was happy to see the end of the NSA’s wiretapping powers. Why? Because now he won’t have to listen to so many boring phone calls between grandparents, the only people who still talk on the phone. Yep, that sounds about right.

Screengrab via Late Night With Seth Meyers/YouTube

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*First Published: Jun 2, 2015, 8:29 am CDT