The Morning Download: Government Readjusts National Privacy Setting

Good morning. Counterterrorism officials have created a digital dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens, even if they aren’t suspected of committing a crime, the WSJ’s Julia Angwin says. The expanding powers of the National Counterterrorism Center caused a rift in the Obama administration and constitute a “sea change in the way that the government interacts with the general public,” Mary Ellen Callahan, chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security, tells Angwin.Companies may find themselves caught up in the dragnet, as the government looks for money launderers, embargo busters and general links in the chain of terror.