No, no we can’t.

Via Politico:

President Barack Obama said in an interview aired Friday that the capabilities of the National Security Agency are “scary to people.”

Speaking to CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Obama said the capabilities are not unique just to the United States and that other countries have similar technologies.

“There’s no doubt that, for all the work that’s been done to protect the American people’s privacy, the capabilities of the NSA are scary to people. And, by the way, these aren’t unique to the NSA,” Obama said.

Obama noted that people have “legitimate concerns” that the technology is moving faster than legislation and privacy protections in place.

“Do some of these systems end up being like a loaded gun out there that somebody at some future point could abuse? Because there are no allegations, and I am very confident — knowing the NSA and how they operate – that purposefully somebody is out there trying to abuse this program or listen in on people’s e-mail,” Obama said.

Safeguard will have to be improved as the technology moves forward, Obama said.

“What I recognize is that we’re going to have to continue to improve the safeguards and as technology moves forward, that means that we may be able to build technologies that give people more assurance.”