Thank you @eff and @CenDemTech for fighting for the universal rights of all in the context of the upcoming #FISA reform, and not just those of "US persons". 🙏
technically, the extension is for four months, until April 2024. But the FISA court approves applications for a year, so any surveillance started in early 2024 will continue until 2025.
“Any entity that you visit as a customer, that provides Wi-Fi service, could be required to let the government tap into its equipment, and pull out entire streams of communications.”
The House of Representatives is still scheduled to take up both Section 702 #FISA renewal bills tomorrow. The good one (H.R. 6570) and the bad FBI bill (H.R. 6611). If you have not, please take a minute to tell your Congressional rep to oppose the FBI's expansion of warrantless #surveillance and advance the good reform bill. https://takeaction.salsalabs.org/FISAReform/index.html
Buried in the House intelligence committee’s #FISA “reform” bill, scheduled for a floor vote tomorrow, is the biggest expansion of US #surveillance since the Patriot Act.
Currently the govt can compel companies that have direct access to comms like phone, email, & texting providers, to assist in surveillance by turning over comms of targets.
Under Section 504 of the House Intel committee’s bill, any entity that has access to equipment on which communications may be transmitted or stored, such as an ordinary router, is fair game.
So hotels, libraries, coffee shops - anyone who offers wifi could be required to config systems to provide govt access to comms.
The bill is H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ). It has a lot of similarities to the bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act (where Wyden and Sen. Mike Lee are the Senate sponsors). But there are other bills potentially moving forward as well.... (1/3)
NEW: The odds of Speaker Johnson ramming a #Section702 reauthorization through tomorrow has diminished, sources say, but more than 80+ civil rights groups are warning lawmakers against it. So is FreedomWorks, who says they'll tag any conservative who supports it. // #NDAA#FISA
NEW: A new report by the House Intelligence Committee's Republican majority blasts the FBI for routinely violating rules governing #FISA's #Section702 surveillance program, adding it's time to rein the bureau in, and force it go to court to get warrants // #privacy#security#natsec
My latest: More than 60 groups advocating for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are pushing the US Congress to reform the #Section702 surveillance program as Senate leaders move to hastily renew it. // #FISA#Privacy#Surveillance
Dozens of prominent Asian American groups are asking United States lawmakers this morning to hold fast in the face of an anticipated campaign by congressional leaders to extend the Section 702 surveillance program by securing it, like a rider, to another “must pass” bill.
We’re heading into a busy time for FISA activism. FISA Section 702 expires in December 2023 unless Congress re-authorizes it, and the just-introduced bi-partisan Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA) combines significant FISA reforms with other important protections.
And conveniently enough, WordPress now makes it easy to connect blogs to the fediverse, an decentralized ecosystem social networks. If you’ve got a Mastodon account, you should be able to follow us at @getfisaright
A lot of people in the fediverse are passionate and knowledgable about privacy and civil liberties … and because FISA affects “non-US persons” as well as Americans, it’s something that’s likely to have broad interest. Of course, as Privacy activism on Mastodon and in the fediverse discusses, there are also some barriers to activism in the fediverse, so we’ll see how well it works out … but @rt4@eff and other civil liberties groups are already there, so it’s worth a try!
My latest for WIRED on the imminent demise of the #Section702 program -- a federal statute empowering much of the US government's foreign intelligence collection. #fisa#surveillance#privacy
"This morning the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent agency within the executive branch, issued a report on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The report recommends that Congress enact a wide range of reforms to Section 702, including a requirement that federal agents obtain approval from a judge to access data collected under Section 702 for an American’s communications. Three of the five Board members stated that they would support a “probable cause” standard for both criminal and mixed criminal/foreign intelligence investigations. The Chair of the Board issued a separate statement explaining the necessity for a probable cause standard in these cases."