A missive led by the Brennan Center for Justice and over two dozen other civil rights organizations is urging House and Senate leadership to reject any approaches that lawmakers take to shove an extension or reauthorization of surveillance powers derived from Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act into a planned continuing resolution, arguing that doing so would mean 'blatant disregard' for American civil rights.
The 702 power enables spy agencies to scoop up foreign communications like emails or text messages and use them in investigations related to national security and terrorist threats. 702 permits this collection even if a U.S. citizen or person residing in the United States is on the other side of the communication stream, despite Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search, which has raised concerns among privacy advocates and others about how American conversations are collected in the process.
#bipartisan-coalition #section-702-surveillance-powers #foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act #civil-rights #privacy-concerns
[
Collection
]
[
|
...
]