President Barack Obama has ordered curbs on the use of bulk data collected by US intelligence agencies, saying civil liberties must be respected.
In a much-anticipated speech, Mr Obama said US intelligence had prevented terror attacks at home and abroad.
But he said the rush to respond to real threats had come with the risk of the government over-reaching itself.
Mr Obama also promised the US would not monitor the communications of heads of state of allied countries.
The announcement follows global anger after details of the work of US intelligence agencies were leaked by a former contractor, Edward Snowden.
Mr Snowden, who is wanted in the US for espionage, is living in exile in Russia.
Among the revelations in the documents he released were that the US collects massive amounts of electronic data from communications of private individuals around the world and had also spied on foreign leaders.
In his speech, at the Department of Justice, Mr Obama said he would not apologise for the effectiveness of US intelligence operations, and insisted that nothing he had seen indicated they sought to break the law.
But he said he recognised that storing large amounts of data allowed for “the potential of abuse”.
Under the new plans, details of phone calls would be held by a third party, and the NSA would have to seek legal permission before it could access that information.
A panel of independent advocates would also sit on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) which has responsibility for giving permission for mass surveillance programmes.
These reforms should give Americans “greater confidence their rights are being protected”, said Mr Obama.
BBC
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