Trump Administration Wants A Clean Reauthorization For NSA Surveillance
from the because-of-course-it-does dept
Considering the new administration has stepped up its ousting of immigrants, expressed its disinterest in pursuing civil rights investigations of the nation's law enforcement agencies, applauded asset forfeiture, and declared war on leakers, it comes as no surprise the White House supports a clean reauthorization of Section 702 surveillance.
The Trump administration does not want to reform an internet surveillance law to address privacy concerns, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday, saying it is needed to protect national security.
The announcement could put President Donald Trump on a collision course with Congress, where some Republicans and Democrats have advocated curtailing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, parts of which are due to expire at the end of the year.
Section 702 has dodged reform efforts, thanks in part to the intelligence community's unwillingness to discuss anything about it. Repeated requests by representatives for the NSA to come up with an estimate of how many US persons' communications are swept up "inadvertently" have been met with shrugs and stalling. Five years after he was first asked, James Clapper promised to have something put together "soon." We're still waiting.
Not helping the matter is the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board's evaluation of the program. After finding the Section 215 phone metadata program both useless and illegal, it had very little to say about the NSA's internet backbone dragnet. The best it could offer was that it was likely legal and any collection of US persons' communications was probably "inadvertent." It agreed the massive collection program ran right up against the edges of the Fourth Amendment, but didn't cross it -- at least as far as it was willing to examine.
Unfortunately, there will be no follow-up arriving before the reauthorization period closes. The PCLOB is mostly dead and unlikely to be revived by an administration looking for a no-questions-asked rubber stamping of Section 702's five-year renewal. Given that the unanswered questions about domestic surveillance weren't answered in time for the 2012 renewal debate, it's highly probable the Director of National Intelligence's office won't be providing these numbers to Congressional representatives ahead of the December deadline.
Hopefully, there will be a more organized push back against a clean reauthorization. Thanks to multiple leaks, Congressional representatives should actually have some idea how much domestic surveillance occurs under this statute. It's more critical than ever that the program receive a detailed examination before the vote, considering the outgoing president gave more than a dozen federal agencies access to unminimized data/communications collected by the NSA.
And Trump himself has seen no reason to roll that sharing back, despite his antipathy towards much of Obama's orders and legislation. Ironically, his Saturday morning tweetstorm griping about the Trump Tower being "wire tapped" by Obama ahead of the November election. Once again, Trump has offered no proof of this claim, but even if taken at face value, it would be the byproduct of the Section 702 program he has stated he wants renewed with no changes. Communications with foreign persons is fair game under Section 702, even if the communications originate in the US. The FBI's acquisition of these communications (if that's what has happened) is specifically approved by the recent data-sharing program. Perhaps Trump might want to take a closer look at the program before attempting to shove it past inquistive legislators.
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Filed Under: donald trump, fisa court, fisc, mass surveillance, seciton 702, surveillance
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My question is if you look at a website outside the USA is that "communicating"? We need publicly defined definitions.
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are being done in order to establish "hey, they did it first!" / "everyone does this, what are you complaining about?" precedent for when Trump wants to surveil people using the same authority.
That's what I thought it smelled like myself. I'm glad I've not slipped my leash and started seeing plots simply because I loathe the Donald John Trump administration. That animosity is due to direct and personal experience in two cases. Nothing like knowing from first hand experience just what kind of swamp scum you are dealing with.
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Re: ask daddy
Pop was working at Northrup on Edward Tellers StarWars then, and had been OSS in WWII, spent the 1950's on Caltech's 'Project Vista' (now the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit) and developing computerized image missile guidance.
Canada and US fighter planes had been taunting the Russians for many months that year.
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Right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures.
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TD is still to stupid to understand that it's shit like this that makes them look "cognitively dissonant".
Sadly, this place is mostly just hypocrites.
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It's ok, take your meds so you don't become non-compliant and lose your medicaid.
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And it's shit like this that makes people like you look like they have Stockholm syndrome.
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to site owner
"Ninja: https://torrentfreak.com/google-99-95-of-recent-trusted-dmca-notices-were-bogus-170222/
Anomalies.
Tha t part where Google is going to allow 'preemptive' takedown of urls that don't exist real?
hij: I wish we had a way to post side notes associated with upcoming stories to help point out typos....
Ninja: that silicon valley sexism article seems to be attracting some weirdness"
NOW see what ninja posted torrentfreak
ya know where they ban anyone no tinto fucking htere kids/parents and incest and kiddy porn is ok and how they keep posting any info so hollystupid can continue to whack the moles.....
be warned your support will drop off like a rock if you allow those sick puppies to migrate in to your inner circle
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??????
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Gad, that was worth 20 minutes of drilldown!
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And I'll look down and whisper "No."
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Ballsy. Stupid, but ballsy.
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that is about the ONLY difference. If you really need someone to sweet talk you right before they fuck you you can hire a prostitute for that, or just try to get Obama back in. I hear that lying politicians have been in season for the past 3 administrations.
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This is true, but I'm not sure how it contradicts the statement that the new administration has stepped up its ousting of immigrants.
What are you talking about?
No, seriously, what are you talking about?
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Hypocrisy stands in the way of solutions
While we're at it, let's talk about Google and Facebook and Windows 10 and Twitter and all the others. All operating without accountability, acting as the internet's FCC while taking orders from big business partners and backdoor government agreements.
Let's segue into Chinese backdoors too on nearly 80% of devices (IoT) coming out of there.
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Re: Hypocrisy stands in the way of solutions
Yes. If only Techdirt had talked about surveillance during the Obama Administration. Or Google, Facebook, Windows 10, or Twitter. Or addressed IoT vulnerabilities or Chinese spying.
Do you see the word "reauthorization" in the headline?
What do you suppose the "re-" at the beginning of that word means?
Hint: it's an acknowledgement that this was already happening during the Obama Administration, you idiot.
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Re: Hypocrisy stands in the way of solutions
All operating without accountability, acting as the internet's FCC while taking orders from big business partners and backdoor government agreements.
Ahh yes...the swamp that was supposed to be drained.
So what's the orange chucklefuck gonna do about it?
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Re: Hypocrisy stands in the way of solutions
If you're not going to acknowledge Techdirt's *long* history of criticizing both government and corporate surveillance, or even worse, claim it didn't happen, then you can just go piss off. We're all for having honest discussions on the topic, but your comment is predicated on a blatant falsehood. Ignorance or a lie? You tell us...
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This sentence seems incomplete. It makes the point that it's ironic he tweeted about being tapped, but the phrasing makes it seem as if there should be a second portion to the sentence.
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Translation
Needed, to protect US, and OUR way of life, from PLEBS like you
Fuck the class system
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