Former Vice-President Al Gore has criticized the National Security Agency’s collection of millions of phone records as “not really the American way” and said that, in his view, the practice is unconstitutional.

Gore used the words of one of the country’s Founding Fathers to make the point that concerns about national security should never trump the rights of every citizen.

“I quite understand the viewpoint that many have expressed that they are fine with it and they just want to be safe but that is not really the American way,” Gore said. “Benjamin Franklin famously wrote that those who would give up essential liberty to try to gain some temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”