The US' top intelligence official, Robert Litt has reportedly rejected the need for greater transparency in the National Security Agency's surveillance programmes.
The general counsel for the director of national intelligence said that additional privacy checks would prove self-defeating.
According to Washington Times, Litt further warned that sifting through the massive reams of digital communications swept up by the NSA to determine which were sent by Americans and which were not would make any privacy violations even more invasive.
Litt testified about a law proposed by the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, which would require an annual report from the administration on how many US citizens and legal foreign residents had their data collected under the broad NSA programs authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court.
The official said that such reporting itself provides the right balance between transparency and national security and it would require an extraordinary investment of resources to count, or even estimate, the number of Americans' communications that were swept up by the NSA.
The alleged mass surveillance programmes were exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, following which the US has lost confidence from its citizens and allies alike.
Critics have warned that intelligence officials risk losing the public's trust if they will not come clean about the programmes that have been now revealed, the report added.