In a landmark ruling, a federal district court held that backdoor searches of databases full of Americans’ private communications collected under Section 702 ordinarily require a warrant. Congress should uphold its responsibility to protect civil rights and civil liberties by refusing to renew Section 702 absent a number of necessary reforms.
  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
    2·
    1 day ago

    This decision sheds light on the government’s liberal use of what is essential a “finders keepers” rule regarding your communication data. As a legal authority, FISA Section 702 allows the intelligence community to collect a massive amount of communications data from overseas in the name of “national security.” But, in cases where one side of that conversation is a person on US soil, that data is still collected and retained in large databases searchable by federal law enforcement. Because the US-side of these communications is already collected and just sitting there, the government has claimed that law enforcement agencies do not need a warrant to sift through them.

    I got nothing to hide!