Secret US court issues first order for phone data under new law

An illustration picture shows a network cable next to a pack of smartphones in Berlin, June 7, 2013. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski

WASHINGTON: The secretive US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has issued its first order allowing the National Security Agency to collect telephone records under a new electronic spying law Congress passed last year. 

According to an order from the court posted April 19 on a website operated by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the court issued the order on Dec 31.