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[20200514_131223 UTC: Updated to add links from original source.--martyb]
The US Senate voted down an amendment to the USA Patriot Act on Wednesday that would create a tougher standard for government investigators to collect the web search and browsing histories of people in the states. The bipartisan amendment, proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democrat, and Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, a Republican, would've required the Department of Justice to show probable cause when requesting approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to collect the data for counterterrorism or counterintelligence investigations.
Later Wednesday, the Senate voted to approve a separate bipartisan amendment that would expand a program that reviews some FISA Court requests and provides advice to judges on privacy and civil liberties concerns.
Before the vote on the browsing history issue, Daines told the Senate the bill was necessary to keep the government from intruding into the most sensitive information of internet users in the US. "If you want to see an American's search history, then you better go to a judge and get a warrant," he said.
The amendment required 60 votes to pass and failed with a final tally of 59 ayes and 37 nays. A separate amendment drafted by Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican, would expressly allow the collection of web search and browsing data under section 215 of the Patriot Act, which doesn't require that investigators show probable cause. The Wyden-Daines amendment, by contrast, would've given government the ability to request the data under a separate part of the law, Title I, which does require probable cause.
Senate rejects tougher standards for collection of search and browsing dat
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Friday May 15 2020, @04:04AM (2 children)
I still feel both sides are fairly equally bad, just on separate topics. This one is a bad one for the Republicans. The Democrats have their own poor areas. I'm tired of voting for either in national elections.
Also, if this were really a flagship issue for the Democrats, I don't think we'd expect to find Feinstein on the list. The representatives aren't representing the masses any more. This is where I'd go off rambling about the need for something better than first-past-the-post ballots, but I'm not in the mood to write a wall of text. It's late and I want to fall asleep binge watching something tonight.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Friday May 15 2020, @02:06PM (1 child)
How's that moral equivalence working out for you?
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by DeVilla on Friday May 15 2020, @03:43PM
With regards to this story? Not much worse than when the candidate who was supposed to end warrant-less wiretaps and prosecute those involved turned into the biggest defender of those programs, growing them under his second term.
Yes, this latest development sucks. Yes this is an issue that the Republican say considerably worse things about. Almost funny considering their current complaints that Trump was illegally spied on when he was running for office.
But I have no faith that anyone who could get elected into a position that mattered would truly fix this. Use it to push for your team if you like. I'll believe they'll do about this when they actually do something better about this.