White House Panel Says FBI Access to Surveillance Tool Should be Cut Back https://politicaliq.com/2023/08/01/white-house-panel-says-fbi-access-to-surveillance-tool-should-be-cut-back/ #FISA #Section702 #FBI #Intelligence #DataSearches #ElectronicSurveillance #politicaliq #news #politics

The White House Acknowledges the Pressure on #Section702, But Much More Reform is Needed
#privacy #surveillance
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/white-house-acknowledges-pressure-section-702-much-more-reform-needed

#USA #Surveillance #FBI #Section702 #PoliceState: "The latest exhibit in this is in yet another newly declassified opinion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). This opinion further reiterates what we already know, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation simply cannot be trusted with conducting foreign intelligence queries on American persons. Regardless of the rules, or consistent FISC disapprovals, the FBI continues to act in a way that shows no regard for privacy and civil liberties.

According to the declassified FISC ruling, despite paper reforms which the FBI has touted that it put into place to respond to the last time it was caught violating U.S. law, the Bureau conducted four queries for the communications of a state senator and a U.S. senator. And they did so without even meeting their own already-inadequate standards for these kinds of searches.

How many times will the FBI get caught with their hand in the cookie jar of our constitutionally protected private communications without losing these invasive and unconstitutional powers?

Specifically, this disclosure concerns Section 702 of the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, which authorizes the collection of overseas communications that can be queried by intelligence agencies in national security investigations under the oversight of the FISC. The FBI has access to the collected information, but only for limited purposes—purposes which it routinely and grossly oversteps."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/deja-vu-fbi-proves-again-it-cant-be-trusted-section-702

Instead of obtaining a warrant, the NSA would like to keep buying your data - National Security Agency headquarters. (credit: Trevor Paglen, Wikimedi... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957520 #nationalsecurityagency #databrokers #syndication #section702 #policy #nsa

Ars Technica: Instead of obtaining a warrant, the NSA would like to keep buying your data https://arstechnica.com/?p=1957520 #Tech #arstechnica #IT #Technology #NationalSecurityAgency #databrokers #syndication #section702 #Policy #NSA

Deja Vu: The #FBI Proves Again it Can’t be Trusted with #Section702
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/deja-vu-fbi-proves-again-it-cant-be-trusted-section-702

Deja Vu: The #FBI Proves Again it Can’t be Trusted with #Section702

How many times will the FBI get caught with their hand in the cookie jar of our constitutionally protected private communications without losing these invasive and #unconstitutional powers?
#privacy #surveillance

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/deja-vu-fbi-proves-again-it-cant-be-trusted-section-702

#USA #Surveillance #FBI #Section702 #FISA: "Suggesting that the FBI police itself is laughable in the face of the history of vast warrantless surveillance of Americans and other surveillance abuse. Self-regulation won’t work. For proof, look no further than the approximately 200,000 backdoor searches the FBI conducted in 2022. Using the FBI’s own compliance rate, even after its latest internal “reforms,” that includes more than 8,000 searches that violate its own rules.

Instead, Congress should adopt the reforms recommended by a coalition of more than 20 privacy, civil rights and civil liberties organizations, including Freedom of the Press Foundation. It must close the backdoor searches loophole by requiring the government to get a warrant before it can search the massive Section 702 data trove for Americans’ communications. It also must narrow Section 702’s parameters to target genuine national security needs. Separate from Section 702 reform, passing the PRESS Act would also help protect journalists from surveillance of their electronic communications data."

https://freedom.press/news/congress-can-end-warrantless-spying-on-journalists-and-other-americans/

#USA #MassSurveillance #Section702 #FISA #Surveillance #Privacy: "US Senators have told intelligence agency officials that they are unlikely to renew authorization to use Section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without setting stricter limits on how and when government snoops can wield its powers.

A key point of contention between the lawmakers and intelligence agencies is that the surveillance powers conferred by the Act – which are supposed to be used against foreign targets who pose a threat to the United States – are also used to allow warrantless snooping on US citizens' communications.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, representatives from the CIA, NSA, FBI and Justice Department repeatedly told lawmakers that Section 702 is a critical national security tool."

@eff @demandprogress
@mozilla
@team
@epicprivacy

Feels like its time we start getting word out and getting organized for Section 702 reform/renewal?

Where can laymen like me find: Org/orgs organizing and leading this push as we get closer to year's end, orgs we can pitch in with and devote our talents with - nationally to locally; or resources we can share with elected representatives and contacts/family/friends?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act#Criticism

#Section702 #Surveillance #Privacy #Infosec #Tech

#USA #FBI #Section702 #FISA #Cybersecurity #Surveillance: "15 years into Section 702’s history, declassified examples of thwarting cyberattacks are sparse. In the little over three months that the Biden administration has been publicly advocating for the renewal of Section 702, it hasn’t mentioned a single specific public incident where Section 702 was used, despite a term marked by both ample cyber attacks and well-publicized takedowns of foreign hackers.

That lack of transparency and specificity doesn’t appear to be helping the Biden administration in what will likely be an uphill battle for Congress to reauthorize the authority before it sunsets in December. Even some of the authority’s greatest supporters have expressed frustration."

https://cyberscoop.com/white-house-section-702-fisa-surveillance/

FISA debate stirs
Alarm bells sound from tech group
Section 702

#fisa #debate #alarmbells #section702 #haiku #poetry

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/fbi-misused-foreign-surveillance-law-280k-times-to-snoop-on-people-in-the-us/

Ars Technica: Widespread FBI abuse of foreign spy law sets off “alarm bells,” tech group says https://arstechnica.com/?p=1941492 #Tech #arstechnica #IT #Technology #warrantlessspying #section702 #FISACourt #Policy #FISA #fbi

Widespread FBI abuse of foreign spy law sets off “alarm bells,” tech group says - Enlarge (credit: Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images North America)... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=1941492 #warrantlessspying #section702 #fisacourt #policy #fisa #fbi

Newly Public #FISC Opinion is The Best Evidence For Why #Congress Must End #Section702
#privacy #surveillance #fisa #4thamendment
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/newly-public-fisc-opinion-best-evidence-why-congress-must-end-section-702

#USA #FBI #Surveillance #Privacy #Section702 #FISA: "A surveillance court order unsealed last week that details massive violations of Americans’ privacy by the FBI underscores why Congress must end or radically change the unconstitutional spying program enabled by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The opinion recounts how for years the FBI illegally accessed a database containing communications obtained under Section 702 and other FISA authorities more than 278,000 times, including searching for communications of people arrested at protests of police violence and people who donated to a congressional candidate. Section 702 authorizes the surveillance of communications between people overseas. But when a person on U.S. soil is in contact with one of these surveillance targets, that leaves their side of the exchange sitting in a database and vulnerable to these warrantless FBI searches. As the opinion says, “Notwithstanding this foreign directed targeting, the extent to which Section 702 acquisitions involve U.S. persons should be understood to be substantial in the aggregate.”

The pervasiveness of the FBI’s failure to comply with even the most modest reforms designed to limit the agency’s surveillance powers reveals two problems that Congress must address as it considers the Administration’s request to reauthorize Section 702."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/newly-public-fisc-opinion-best-evidence-why-congress-must-end-section-702

#USA #Surveillance #FBI #PoliceState #Section702 #FISA #CivilRights: "The FBI has misused a powerful digital surveillance tool more than 278,000 times, including against crime victims, Jan. 6 riot suspects, people arrested at protests after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 and — in one case — 19,000 donors to a congressional candidate, according to a newly unsealed court document.

FBI officials say they have already fixed the problems, which the agency blamed on a misunderstanding between its employees and Justice Department lawyers about how to properly use a vast database named for the legal statute that created it, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

But the failures to use the database correctly when collecting information about U.S. citizens and others may make it harder for the agency to marshal support in Congress to renew the law, which is due to expire at the end of this year. It may also create additional head winds for the FBI, which has been under attack for years by former president Donald Trump and his political supporters. House lawmakers aligned with Trump held a hearing this week trying to show that the nation’s premier law enforcement agency is biased against conservatives."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/19/fbi-digital-surveillance-misuse-jan6-blm/

The #FBI misused its powerful digital #surveillance powers nearly 300,000 times between 2020 and early 2021, according to a recently unsealed court document. #Democrat Senator #RonWyden of Oregon criticized the abuse. “There is important, secret information about how the #government has interpreted #Section702 that #Congress and the American people need to see before the law is renewed.” The law is set to expire at the end of the year.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/05/19/fbi-misused-surveillance-powers-nearly-300000-times-in-2-years-unsealed-court-document-says/

At Congressional Hearing, #PCLOB Members Suggest Bare Minimum of 702 Reforms

Last week, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government #Surveillance held a hearing on “Fixing FISA: How a Law Designed to Protect Americans Has Been #Weaponized Against Them,” ahead of the December 2023 expiration of the #Section702 surveillance authority
#fisa #privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/congressional-hearing-pclob-members-suggest-bare-minimum-702-reforms

Internal Documents Show How Little the #FBI Did to Correct Misuse of #Section702 Databases https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/internal-documents-show-how-little-fbi-did-correct-misuse-section-702-databases