The White House is defending the practice of gathering phone records from American citizens while neither confirming nor denying a report that the National Security Agency is collecting information regarding communications by Verizon customers.

Such information has been “a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats,” a senior Obama administration official said.

“On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls,” the official said.

The practice was first revealed by the British newspaper The Guardian on Wednesday, which obtained and published a highly classified court order that requires the production of “telephony metadata” by the telecommunications giant.

More from NBC News

Posted by Libergirl