Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey said he has “serious concerns” about reports that the U.S. government has been collecting massive amounts of data from phone and internet companies.

News reports this week revealed the existence of two secret surveillance programs by the U.S. National Security Agency. The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported on one court order, in which the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowed the NSA to access all of Verizon's phone records, domestic and international, on a daily basis for a three-month period, including information on the phone numbers of both parties, call time and duration, and unique identifiers. The second program, uncovered by The Washington Post, allowed the NSA and FBI to tap into the servers of nine U.S. Internet companies, extracting information including audio and video, e-mails, documents and connection logs.

Markey, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in the June 25 special election, has been a leader in Congress on privacy issues. Markey said in a statement released Friday, "As we look for the guilty needle, we can't invade the privacy of those in the innocent haystack. I have serious concerns about this program, and will continue my work to protect the privacy of individuals from excessive requests for wireless records and information."

Markey co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus. He has been involved with investigating the large numbers of law enforcement requests for wireless records, including sweeping requests in which carriers provide phone numbers of all cell users that connect with a tower during a period of time. Markey has contended that the privacy concerns of innocent people should not be overlooked in these requests.

Markey’s office has pointed to Markey’s votes on a variety of surveillance-related bills in which Markey voiced privacy concerns. Markey voted against a 2007 reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allow the government to wiretap communications to or from a foreign country without a court warrant. He opposed a 2008 bill that would have shielded telecommunications companies from lawsuits related to government’s warrantless wiretaps on phone lines.

Markey voted for the Patriot Act in 2001, a bill giving government broader authority to investigate foreign and domestic terrorism, but against reauthorizations of the Patriot Act in 2010 and 2011, and against making it permanent. His spokesman said Markey opposed giving the government overly broad power to investigate private records without consistent oversight and public debate.

Markey's opponent, Republican private equity investor Gabriel Gomez, said Thursday that he did not yet know enough about the programs to comment.

Gomez said Friday, “Given the recent scandals in Washington, it’s not surprising that the American people are skeptical of the federal government. I’m not privy to all the classified intelligence the President has, but I feel strongly we need to balance our national security with respect of citizen’s privacy rights.”

June 7, 2013 - Springfield - Staff photo by Michael S. Gordon - Congressman Xavier Becerra, D-California, campaigned for his colleague, Congressman Edward Markey, D-Mass. in Springfield Friday at Medina's Supermarket on Main St. in the city's North End.

U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat from California's 34th Congressional District, rallied the Latino vote for Markey in Springfield and Worcester on Friday. In an interview following the Western Massachusetts stop, he said that although he was already aware of most of the NSA's surveillance programs, he was taken aback by the scope of the two currently under public scrutiny.

"I was not aware of the extent of this and it is concerning. We have two cherished principles of our democracy that are rubbing against each other," Becerra said. "To me, what makes us such as great country, is that we cherish freedom so much. But you can't have freedom without security. So you have to find the balance."

Becerra said that while he is confident the Obama administration is acting appropriately despite the broad nature of the surveillance programs, he worries about potentials for abuse.

"I have voted against some of the overreaching by Congress when it comes to legislating what we can do to investigate potential terrorism because if you go to broadly you sweep in folks who are innocent," Becerra said. "And at some point you may have someone in the White House or someone in government who doesn't take their role of authority with as much deliberation, that's when you get these sweeps that are unjustified."

This story has been updated to include a comment from Gabriel Gomez.

Reporter Robert Rizzuto contributed to this report.