If it aint broke, dont fix it, the adage goes. But for the sunset of Patriot Act authorities later this yearincluding Section 215, a controversial provision that allows the National Security Agency to collect records, including those about Americans phone callsthe more applicable phrase may be If it keeps breaking, throw it out.

Jake Laperruque is senior counsel for the Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight.

In 2015, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act to reform Section 215 and prohibit the nationwide bulk collection of communications metadata, like who we make calls to and receive them from, when, and the call duration. The provision was replaced with a significantly slimmed-down call detail record program, known as CDR. Rather than gathering information in bulk, CDR collects communications metadata of specific surveillance targets and individuals with one or two degrees of separation (called two hops) from targets. But this newer system appears to be no more effective than its predecessor and is highly damaging to constitutional rights. Given this combination, its time for Congress to pull the plug and end the authority for the CDR program.

Its unsurprising that just last week a bipartisan group in Congress introduced a bill to do so. Last month, The New York Times reported that a highly placed congressional staffer had stated that the CDR program has been out of operation for months, and several days later, NSA director Paul Nakasone issued comments responding to questions about the Times story by saying the NSA was deliberating the future of the program. If accurate, this news is major but not shocking; this large-scale collection program has been fraught with problems. Last year, the NSA announced that technical problems had caused it to collect information it wasnt legally authorized to, and that in response, the agency had voluntarily deleted all the call detail records it had previously acquired through the CDR programwithout even waiting for a court order or trying to save some of the dataindicating that the system was unwieldy and the data being collected was not important to the agency.

Since its inception, we have not seen a single publicized instance of the program providing any unique security valueand in fact, the program has damaged privacy significantly. In its most recent transparency report, the NSA announced that it collected a staggering 534,396,285 call detail records during the 2017 calendar year; the agency said that number includes duplicates, but it provided no information on how significant the duplication issue is. Without knowing that or the average number of CDRs per person, its hard to say how many Americans this affects. The NSA claims it is unable to determine thisdespite statutory requirement to do so and publicly disclose itbut the number is certainly enormous. Our communications metadata can be highly sensitive and can reveal intimate details of our lives. Americans should not be subject to this type of surveillance absent suspicion, particularly if the program conducting it has not yielded any demonstrated value in preventing or investigating terrorism.

When the issues are taken togethersevere costs to privacy, no evidence of security value, technical flaws, the NSAs willingness to broadly discard data it has collected, and a recent media report that the program has been shut downthey indicate that we are better off without this program.

But its important that Congress does more than just end the CDR program. Many in the privacy and civil liberties community worry that if the Section 215 metadata collection authority is no longer in use, the CDR program could still be active but justified with a different legal provision, and out of the publics view. The public can only have confidence that congressional reforms are effective and not a meaningless game of whack-a-mole if lawmakers and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board conduct rigorous oversight to find out whether such a shift happened with the CDR program. And if Congress does end the program, it should build in legal restrictions to ensure that the program cannot be restarted under a different authority.

The problems with the CDR program seem to be a continuation of the governments misplaced faith in the nationwide bulk collection program that the CDR program replaced. After the governments vehement defense of the need for bulk collection, the Presidents Review Group on Surveillance, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and eventually even the intelligence communitys top-ranking official stated that it had not provided unique value and was not necessary to fulfill counterterrorism goals.

As the December sunset approaches for several Patrior Act authorities, including Section 215, it is clear that the failed experiment of large-scale metadata collection needs to end. Prohibiting nationwide bulk collection received strong bipartisan support in 2015 during the USA Freedom Act debate. In the House, 196 Republicans and 142 Democrats voted for the billand most of those who voted against it did so because they felt the bills reforms did not go far enoughwhile over two-thirds of US senators also supported the bill. Further limiting mass surveillance of communications metadata is likely to receive bipartisan support again, especially given the lack of evidence that it aids security.

Congress should also go beyond ending the CDR authority to take on additional critical reforms. In the wake of the Snowden disclosures, public faith in the intelligence community and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that rules on data-collection efforts under Section 215 has degraded. And more recent inaccurate and unsubstantiated criticisms of these entities have harmed trust further. The USA Freedom Act took important steps toward restoring that faith by requiring that significant FISA court opinions be declassified, and creating a special advocate to represent privacy concerns in the courts proceedings. But these provisions should be strengthened. For years, the Constitution Project has advocated for creating a more robust special advocate; strengthening provisions for FISA court declassifications would be a critical change as well.

Congress should also consider a range of other reforms during this years Patrior Act debate, relating to minimizing data retention of non-targets, civil rights, and transparency. But the first problem to address, and the one with the clearest solution, is authority for the CDR. Its long past time to pull the plug.

WIRED Opinion publishes pieces written by outside contributors and represents a wide range of viewpoints. Read more opinions here. Submit an op-ed atopinion@wired.com

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Its Time to End the NSAs Metadata Collection Program | WIRED