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posted by mrpg on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the christmas-tapping dept.

One of the NSA’s most important surveillance authorizations is set to expire on December 31st, and all year, reformers have been looking at the reauthorization as a way to pare back the agency’s powers. But after months of negotiating terms, Congress is now preparing a bill with none of the proposed limits, and a number of troubling new measures that say could greatly expand the agency’s power.

Submitted by Rep. Nunes on Tuesday afternoon, the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 is based on a previous bill submitted by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), generally seen as the most NSA-friendly of the proposals. The current bill is narrower than Burr’s proposal in some areas, but makes a significant expansion to “about” collection, which allows the NSA to search communications that mention a given target but was not sent or received by the target. In practical terms, that could mean searching a message simply because it contains an email address, phone number, or other string of characters associated with a target.

[...] The bill would also codify the backdoor search loophole, which allows for intelligence agencies to search communications to and from US citizens without obtaining a warrant, as long as those communications were intercepted overseas. While that loophole is most associated with the NSA, it also includes domestic agencies like the FBI, which the current bill says “has the discretion to seek a warrant” if the bureau deems it necessary.

A vote is expected this week.

Congress is sneaking through a major expansion of NSA surveillance powers


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:55PM (6 children)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:55PM (#612777) Journal

    The American folks don't really care about anything unless it directly affects them, so they're just not paying attention, as usual.

    Depends on the political climate and how it's spun. If this were still the Obama era we'd never hear the end of how barry-o (barry? who the fuck is barry?) and the rest of the librul slime wants to spy on you. Now I'd expect to hear how it's going to help make america great again and build a wall or something.

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  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday December 21 2017, @06:53PM (4 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday December 21 2017, @06:53PM (#612891) Journal

    Obama reduced the scope and Trump is expanding it. Your false equivalency is false.

    • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday December 21 2017, @07:04PM (1 child)

      by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday December 21 2017, @07:04PM (#612898) Journal

      Did you reply to the right post?

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @10:33PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @10:33PM (#612990)

      Reduced the scope? Which bill was that? The USA Freedom Act?

      Also, I'm quite tired of this 'This evil piece of garbage is less evil than this other evil piece of garbage!' nonsense; it's such a vapid thing to argue about and it doesn't justify anything. I don't care who does it or who the people being talked about are. I don't want to see it. I want it to vanish from existence. You might even say I want a safe space from this type of content, or perhaps just a trigger warning. It's an eyesore. Vanish!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @02:35AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 22 2017, @02:35AM (#613082)

        Klaatu barada necktie!

  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:16PM

    by edIII (791) on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:16PM (#612959)

    Mass surveillance and the abridgment of civil rights is a bipartisan affair. I believe you have both R's and D's both simultaneously lambasting it and supporting it. The Orange Anus is the Orange Anus, and his bullshit is expected and excoriated. Ol' Barry could do nothing wrong, and the masses cheered him on as his fucked over our rights.

    In any case, it's fucking pointless and a waste of money. Why intercept the traffic when they can just come in with guns, threaten Facebook's executives, wield that unPatriot Act, and gather the data locally?

    --
    Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.