2y ago

Four more months of Section 702 snooping slipped into $890B US defense budget bill

www.theregister.com FBI gets at least four more months of Section 702 snooping

Congress renews warrantless spying tool scribbled on back of huge check for the Pentagon

Now before the House, HR 6570 proposes to reauthorize Section 702 for three years — but with reforms including requiring all US intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before conducting a US person query.

a competing bill, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023 (HR 6611), doesn't include a warrant requirement — and, in fact, includes language that many worry could be used to force private US companies into assisting in government-directed surveillance

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This is the best summary I could come up with:
US lawmakers today approved an $886 billion defense policy bill that includes a four-month extension to Section 702, the controversial surveillance tool that allows American intelligence to potentially spy on its citizens and permanent residents.
This snooping tool allows Uncle Sam's agents to intercept and analyze the electronic communications of foreigners overseas, ostensibly to help prevent terrorist attacks and other threats to national security.
It turns out even messages, phone calls, and emails involving American citizens and permanent residents can be swept up in this dragnet, resulting in the Feds snooping on US persons without a warrant.
Now before the House, HR 6570 proposes to reauthorize Section 702 for three years — but with reforms including requiring all US intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before conducting a US person query.
As The Register reported earlier this week, HR 6611 changes the definition of an electronic communication service provider in a way that expands the range of businesses required to share data with the Feds.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Director of Federal Affairs India McKinney earlier this week called the House Intelligence Committee's 702 reform bill, the HR 6611 one, "a farce."
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