Senate bill would validate NSA’s harvesting of phone, e-mail records, privacy advocates say The Washington Post By Ellen Nakashima, Published: November 2 Privacy advocates and at least one U.S. senator are expressing concern that legislation introduced Thursday would not only endorse the National Security Agency’s collection of all Americans’ phone records, but also give the agency permission to collect massive amounts of their e-mail records. The bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which advanced out of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would codify limits that a special court has placed on the NSA’s use of the records. “The bill that the intelligence committee voted on this week would expressly authorize this bulk collection for the first time, and that would be a huge step backward for the rights of law-abiding Americans,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), one of four committee members who voted against moving the bill. Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who cosponsored the 45-page bill with Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), has said the phone records program is legal and that though they want to place some limits on it, she will do everything she can to prevent it from being halted. Wyden and privacy advocates are also concerned that the bill would place in statute authority for the NSA to search without a warrant for Americans’ e-mail and phone call content collected under a separate FISA surveillance program intended to target foreigners overseas. That is what Wyden has called a “backdoor search loophole.” washingtonpost/politics/senate-bill-would-validate-nsas-harvesting-of-phone-e-mail-records-privacy-advocates-say/2013/11/02/aa24932e-4310-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html?hpid=z3
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 02:28:23 +0000
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