Trump signs bill extending NSA’s warrantless surveillance – By Richard Lawler (Engadget.com) / Jan 20 2018
On Friday afternoon, just hours before Congress failed to avert a government shutdown, the President signed into law the “FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017.” The bill passed the House and Senate earlier this week with the support of many Republicans and Democrats, offering only slight adjustments to Section 702, a law that oversees the NSA’s ability to spy on “international terrorists, weapons proliferators, and other important foreign intelligence targets located outside the United States.”
However, as we learned as part of the Snowden revelations, the programs in place under that law snoop more extensively. In league with companies like (owner of Engadget’s parent company AOL) Verizon, Google, Facebook and others, it can capture or collect large amounts of internet and telephone traffic that passes through the US, along with “incidental” information on many Americans. The reauthorized version offers little in the way of change, even though Trump has claimed this law has been used to spy on his campaign and in spite of many proposals including various reforms.
The ACLU and others have argued this bill may make things worse by allowing the NSA to turn on “about” collection. As described by the ACLU: “the NSA searches through the contents of Americans’ international communications — in bulk and without a warrant — and it retains even those that are merely about its targets.”
Verizon owns Engadget’s parent company, Oath (formerly AOL). Rest assured, Verizon has no control over our coverage. Engadget remains editorially independent.
https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/20/trump-signs-bill-extending-nsas-warrantless-surveillance/
PB/TK – Snoop.. Snoop.. Oh please snoop. If you got nothing to hide then why cry? Oh, I get it, the law is only to be used against bad people not good patriotic apple pie eating folk. Um, in today’s age, if ya don’t snoop you don’t know who or where the bad people are, ya those extremist people. Who cares if Agents Jones and Smith see your Pornhub viewing habits or find Gramma’s secret nutroll recipe
