Down to the “deadline”

April 19, 2024

Senate may vote Friday on expansion of FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance – and maybe also a warrant requirement

FISA Section 702 expires Friday unless it’s reauthorized. This “deadline” doesn’t really matter in terms of national security: the FISA Court has already approved extending existing certifications for another year. But, intelligence agencies and surveillance hawks are trying to use it to strongarm the Senate into passing an expansion of warrantless surveillance that’s so big that Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and civil liberties groups describe as “terrifying.”

Even supporters of the “Everybody Is a Spy bill” like Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) admit this huge expansion is poorly drafted, but he — like the intelligence agencies, and leadership in both parties — thinks the Senate should pass it anyhow. Others disagree including Sen. Cramer (R-ND):

“We can’t have a timeline put to your head like a gun and say, ‘pass a mediocre bill because you’ve got to do it quickly,’ especially given the fact that it’s already sought and received from the court itself a one-year reprieve.”

But today, the Senate voted 67-32 to sent the terrifying, poorly-drafted bill to the floor, which means that a vote could happen on Friday.

Then again, there are also two amendments with strong support: one from Sen. Wyden to roll back the terrifying poorly-drafted expansion the House passed, and another from Sen. Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Cramer to introduce a warrant requirement that’s somewhat narrower than the warrant requirement that almost passed the House last week. Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News reported this afternoon that leadership wants to get it wrapped up by tomorrow, but are concerned is that some these amendments could actually pass — and if it seems like that might happen, they’d rather run out the clock than risk a vote.

So we’ll see what happens. If the Senate doesn’t vote Friday, it’s possible that they’ll vote Saturday or next week. If they do vote Friday and pass an amendment, then it goes back to the House, who might try to squeeze in a vote on Friday night but given how dysfunctional things are that might also be challenging.

If you haven’t already contacted your Senators, now’s a great time! If you have, please consider following up with them. You can either use EFF’s form, call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the Senate directory to look up your legislators’ contact info. Here’s a short script:

“Please OPPOSE the terrifying, poorly-drafted Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), H.R.7888, which would dramatically expand the government’s warrantless surveillance powers. Instead, REMOVE the expansino of FISA 702 powers the House added, and SUPPORT a warrant requirement. Don’t be fooled by the apparent April 19 “deadline”; the FISA Court has already approved a one-year renewal.”

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Senate to vote on RISAA, the “Everyone Is A Spy” expansion of FISA Section 702 warrantless surveillance

April 17, 2024

UPDATE: EFF’s Tell the U.S. Senate: STOP RISAA, the FISA Mass Surveillance Expansion makes it easy to contact your Senators.

The Senate is likely to vote Wednesday on RISAA, the FISA Section 702 reauthorization bill the House passed last week.  The more people have looked at RISAA the worse it looks — Privacy Advocates Ramp Up Effort to Stop Spying Expansion and the letter from a colaition of 75+ privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights groups have details.

Senator Ron Wyden says RISAA “represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.”  One especially big problem with this House bill is what privacy organizations call the “Everyone Is A Spy” provision, which gives the government unchecked authority to order millions of Americans to spy on behalf of the government – which would also help Trump crack down on the media

Wyden and Senator Mike Lee are leading a bipartisan coalition of privacy advocates trying to stop the Senate from passing the House bill — see the end of the article for a video of Sen. Wyden’s powerful speech. So now’s a great time to contact the Senate. You can either use EFF’s form, call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the Senate directory to look up your legislators’ contact info. Here’s a short script:

“Please OPPOSE the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), H.R.7888, which would dramatically expand the government’s warrantless surveillance powers – and any other FISA Section 702 reauthorization including the “Everyone Is A Spy” provision that gives the government unchecked authority to order millions of Americans to spy on behalf of the government.”

Here’s a video of Sen Wyden’s speech — or if you prefer text, here’s the transcript

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House votes to extend and expand Section 702 surveillance powers — without adding a warrant requirement

April 12, 2024

After a lot of maneuvering, the House voted 273–147 today to reauthorize FISA Section 702 for another two years. The vote on an amendment to add a warrant requirement was 212-212, so it didn’t pass. Unfortunately, two other amendments did pass, both expanding the scope of warrantless wiretapping. Politicians of both parties who had supported a warrant requirement in the past voted against it this time — including former Speaker Pelosi and current Speaker Johnson.

Dell Cameron’s House Votes to Extend—and Expand—a Major US Spy Program on Wired and Center for Democracy and Technology’s U.S. House Vote Narrowly Allows Rampant Abuses of Warrantless Spying Authority to Continue have details. Cameron notes

“The House bill also dramatically expands the statutory definition for communication service providers, something FISA experts, including Marc Zwillinger—one of the few people to advise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)—have publicly warned against.

“Anti-reformers not only are refusing common-sense reforms to FISA, they’re pushing for a major expansion of warrantless spying on Americans,” US senator Ron Wyden tells WIRED. “Their amendment would force your cable guy to be a government spy and asNsist in monitoring Americans’ communications without a warrant.””

Next week, the bill moves to the Senate. The deadline for reauthorization is April 19th … but the FISA Court has already extended certifications for another year, so it’s not actually a hard deadline. Stay tuned for more!

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A FISA vote coming this week – UPDATED

April 8, 2024

UPDATE: On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee decided what amendments will be voted on – including a new disastrously bad amendment. So I’ve updated the post. There’s a new script at the bottom — if you’ve already contacted Congress, thanks, and please do so again. If you haven’t now would be a very good time to!

The clock is ticking: FISA Section 702’s authority for warrantless surveillance expires on April 19 it’s reauthorized. For the last few months, a bipartisan coalition of reformers have been focusing on two key improvements: adding a warrant requirement, and preventing intelligence agencies from end-running around the warrant requirement by buying data from data brokers. But the intelligence agencies, and surveillance hawks in both parties, are trying to get FISA reauthorized without significant reforms — and even expanad surveillance. Originally there was supposed to be a vote in December; it got postponed until February, and then postponed again.

Now, the plan is to vote in the House this week. The bill going to the floor doesn’t have any signifciant reforms (it actually weakens) oversight, but there will be a vote on an amendment to add a warrant requirement. Unfortunately there will also be a vote on an amendment that would significantly expand FISA’s scope; Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing: A Planned Amendment to This Week’s Vote Would Be the Largest Expansion of FISA in Over 15 Years has the details

Which means that RIGHT NOW is a great time to contact your Representative. You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the House directories to look up your legislators’ contact info. Here’s a short script:

“Stop the FBI from expanding warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans. OPPOSE the FISA amendment from Reps. Turner and Himes, which would be the largest expansion of FISA since Section 702 was created in 2008. And please oppose any attempt to reauthorize FISA Section 702 that doesn’t include warrant requirements, both for Section 702 data and for our sensitive, personal information sold to the government by data brokers.”

Things are likely to continue to change, so check back frequently! Dell Cameron of Wired is doing frequent updates in The Future of America’s Biggest Spy Program Is Being Decided Right Now.

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Oppose extending FISA in the NDAA!

December 12, 2023

Last night, House Republican leadership decided not to go ahead with votes on the two FISA reauthorization bills. Instead, they’re now planning to attach an extension to the must-pass NDAA — effectively extending FISA until 2025.* See this letter from dozens of civil rights and racial justice groups opposing extending FISA in the NDAA for why that’s a bad idea.

Fortunately, there’s enough opposition to FISA extension in both parties that there’s still a chance to stop it. Here’s how you can help.

  • Contact your Senators TODAY and with a simple ask: “DO NOT put 702 in the NDAA.”
  • Once you’ve done that, contact your representative with the same ask: “DO NOT put 702 in the NDAA.”

You can either call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or use the Senate and House directories to look up your legislators’ contact info.

* technically, the extension is for four months, until April 2024. But the FISA court approves cerfifications for a year, so any surveillance approved in early 2024 will continue until 2025.

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Stop the surveillance power grab. Tell Congress to OPPOSE HPSCI’s Horrific Surveillance Bill and SUPPORT real reforms!

December 10, 2023

FISA Section 702’s authority for warrantless surveillance expires at the end of the year unless it’s reauthorized.  With Congress leaving DC on December 15, there’s a lot of action this week — including competing Section 702 surveillance bills on collision path in the House, two bills in the Senate as well, and perhaps an attempt to add as short-term extension to the most-path NDAA bill. So now’s a critical time to contact Congress!

Both bills are scheduled for a floor vote this week, so now’s a crucial time to contact Congress! Several organizations have pages that make it easy to contact your legislators, along with talking points

Or if you’d rather contact legislators yourself …

The House of Representatives’ switchboard is at 202-225-3121; if you’re not sure who your representative is you can look them up here.

“Please OPPOSE H.R. 6611, the “FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act” (FRRA) and any attempt to include a short-term extension of Section 702 in the NDAA. Please SUPPORT H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (PLEWSA). FRRA not only fails to reform FISA, it actually broadens mass surveillance authorities. We’ve seen too many examples of unchecked, warrantless surveillance of Americans. FISA Section 702 must not be reauthorized without significant reforms – and PLEWSA has support from legislators in both parties.”

And the Senate switchboard is at 202-224-3121.

“Please OPPOSE any attempt to include a short-term extension of FISA Section 702 in the NDAA, and please OPPOSE S.3351 – FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023. Instead, please SUPPRT S. 3234, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023, and SUPPORT H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (PLEWSA). FRRA not only fails to reform FISA, it actually broadens mass surveillance authorities. We’ve seen too many examples of unchecked, warrantless surveillance of Americans. FISA Section 702 must not be reauthorized without significant reforms – and GSRA and PLEWSA has support from legislators in both parties.”

More info:

@privacy@lemmy.ml

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Get FISA Right has entered the fediverse!

November 8, 2023

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@getfisaright.net

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@campaign.openworlds.info @eff and other civil liberties groups are already there, so it’s worth a try!

A checkmark, followed by the words Get FISA Right has entered the fediverse

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A Note from Restore the Fourth

December 11, 2022

Recently, I was pleased to see an e-mail from Restore the Fourth show up in my in-box. They have been active in protecting us from unreasonable search and seizure (text of the amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ”)

Here’s what they say in the new e-mail:

We’re working on our New Year’s resolutions for protecting Fourth Amendment rights.

In 2023, lovers of freedom have a major opportunity. One of the key laws authorizing mass surveillance, Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, is set to expire. If Congress does not act, the NSA will be deprived of statutory authority for surveillance of “US-to-foreign” communications. Its vast dragnet “incidentally” captures the communications of millions of Americans without a warrant. Then, the FBI accesses that database without a warrant, for domestic law enforcement purposes, performing over 3 million searches each year. These “backdoor searches” circumvent the Fourth Amendment and permit mass domestic surveillance.

We can stop this—but we need your help.

Founded after the Snowden revelations of 2013, Restore the Fourth has already helped secure the sunset of another surveillance law, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, in 2020. The last time Section 702 was up for debate, we secured some transparency reforms. Now, with greater bipartisan support for surveillance reform, we can go further. It’s time FISA went back to authorizing surveillance on an individual, not a mass, basis. It’s time the FBI got a warrant for searches on Americans—and it’s time for the NSA and FBI to come clean, to Congress and the public, about the real scale of what they’re doing. You deserve privacy in your communications and your browsing, instead of a government agent looking over your shoulder at everything you do.

We’ll be talking with folks from Restore the Fourth to see how folks can help—they are looking for both donations and volunteers, so check back here and on their own site. These issues never completely go away; we win some battles, but so do those who would ignore our rights. As the saying goes, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, so please join us and Restore the Fourth and keep watching, keep speaking out, and keep sharing information with your friends and colleagues.

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Posted by sallijane

Save Internet Privacy: Day of Action May 26th

May 23, 2020

I am posting here, almost in its entirety, a Rapid Response e-mail that I got today from Fight for the Future.  (well, not quite—we don’t fund-raise, certainly not for ourselves [we are barely here, anymore!] and not since we supported Russ Feingold in his last run for the Senate [We miss you, Russ!], so donation buttons have been removed, but not the “pitch”, as we really like Fight for the Future, and would seriously not object to any donations to them)

The quick version is this: Check out the Fight for the Future day of action next Tuesday, May 26th, 2020, here: SaveInternetPrivacy.org.

For background and details, read on:

The Senate just voted to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act and FISA surveillance authorities. That’s terrible.1

But here’s the deal: we just got handed a once in a lifetime opportunity to finally stop one of the worst types of government spying, by passing an amendment that would require a warrant for accessing Internet activity like web browsing and search history.

But it will only happen if we can mobilize a massive rapid response to force House leadership to act. And we’re expecting a vote early next week, which means they’re deciding right now.

We’re pulling together an EMERGENCY day of action this Tuesday.

Congress makes everything more complicated than it needs to be, but here’s the basics of what’s going on:

The Senate voted to pass the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act, which reauthorizes the Patriot Act and some FISA surveillance powers. That’s bad.

But, they also voted to pass a good amendment from Senators Lee and Leahy that will create some new protections to prevent surveillance based on solely on constitutionally protected political activity or religion. That’s good.

They failed to pass a bipartisan amendment offered by Senators Wyden and Daines that would require the FBI to get a warrant before spying on Internet activity. It lost by only one vote, but that’s only because there were several senators not present when the vote happened. That’s heartbreaking.

But here’s the good news: the bill as amended now goes back to the House. And now that we know we have the votes to pass the good amendment in the Senate, there’s absolutely no excuse for Speaker Pelosi to not allow a vote on it in the House. If she does, it will pass, and then it will pass the Senate.

And that would be a HUGE DEAL. Our position is that the Patriot Act should be repealed in its entirety, but getting this amendment passed would be the one of the most meaningful limitations placed on government surveillance in the last two decades.

Will you help us fight against the Patriot Act and stop the government from creeping on everything we do online? Please rush a donation right now.

We’ve heard from our allies in DC that House leadership is trying to find ways to sneak through a vote to reauthorize the Patriot Act WITHOUT allowing a vote on the good amendment that would require a warrant for Internet spying. But they’re scared they won’t have the votes.

If we can flood them with phone calls and emails and tweets right now and show them there will be massive backlash unless they allow a vote on the Wyden/Daines amendment, they’ll cave, and it will be a huge victory in the fight for Internet privacy and basic rights.

We’ve set up an email and call-in tool at SaveInternetPrivacy.org, and we’re helping build a big coalition of organizations from across the political spectrum to drive phone calls. Websites like Tumblr and Reddit are helping spread the word.

But it costs us money to connect the phone calls, send mass texts to supporters to generate actions, and mobilize our network of websites and advocacy groups. And no one was expecting this opportunity to arise. So we urgently need to raise the funds to cover these costs.

We know many people are struggling and not everyone can donate right now. But if you’re in a position to help, please chip in now so we can seize this chance to finally stop one of the worst types of Patriot Act surveillance.

For freedom,

Evan at Fight for the Future

Footnote:
1. The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/14/21257782/surveillance-bill-congress-senate-pass-usa-freedom-reauthorization-act

and if you have made it this far, take a look at this article that I just found on the Fight for the Future site: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2020-05-23-facebook-told-my-followers-i-was-spreading-misinformation-about-government-surveillance-i-wasnt-63622dd7ae56/

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With the USA Freedom Act sunsetting in December – and FISA abuses in the news – it might get very interesting

November 7, 2019

When the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, and again when the FISA Amendment Act was passed in 2008, several key surveillance powers were supposed to “sunset” in a few years unless Congress voted to reauthorize them.   Which Congress has, repeatedly, usually without even introducing significant reforms.

Now it’s the USA Freedom Act’s turn to sunset, on December 15 unless it’s renewed.

As is usually the case in these sunset battles, the administration has proposed making all the authorities permanent; civil liberties advocates have proposed significant reforms; and the likely outcome is somewhere in between.  Of course, the impeachment hearings make it hard to predict what’s going to happen — how much energy does anybody have to spend on this?  But as I wrote back in 2017

Urgency increases as we get closer to the sunset mechanism’s looming deadline  — which in turn often leads to short-term extensions. It’s like watching sausage getting made, although with a lot more scary headlines and phone calls to Congress.

So buckle up!   The bulk of this post goes into more detail about the situation, but first a few things you can do right now:

As things heat up there will no doubt be plenty of opportunities for grassroots activism.  So, stay tuned!   You can follow Get FISA Right on Twitter and Facebook, and of course there are plenty of other great organizations working on this issue.

Read the rest of this entry »

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