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Big news for those concerned about all that National Security Agency (NSA) spying going on.

Next week, President Barack Obama plans to unveil reconstructions to the agency, extending broad privacy protections to non-U.S. citizens and reforming the program that collects phone-call data of nearly all Americans, officials familiar with the process said on Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday that Mr. Obama is near the end of the decision-making process but is still soliciting advice from various groups and lawmakers before delivering his speech.

“I expect that this will be an important milestone in the process and a conclusion in many respects for this review,” Mr. Carney said, “but not all of the work will be done simply because these recommendations are being acted on.”

Obama’s new proposals will make their debut in a highly polarized political environment — one that is sure to garner both dissent and support from interested parties.

Liberal and civil-liberties advocates—and, to some extent, technology companies—have been pushing for a significant curb on spy activities. Some intelligence and law-enforcement leaders, as well as some telecommunications companies, have quietly advocated for the status quo.

“This is really crunchtime,” Sen. Ron Wyden, (D., Ore.) a member of the Senate intelligence committee who has advocated a major surveillance overhaul, said in an interview. “This is when major decisions about the new rules as it relates to surveillance are going to be made.”

The President’s decisions aren’t final, but he’s said to be tackling the creation of an advocacy post for privacy issues, and a restructuring of the phone data program so a third party or phone companies would house the data, not the NSA.

He’s said to also favor an extension of the Privacy Act of 1974 to extend to non-U.S. citizens.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal | VIDEO SOURCE: News, Inc.