Patriot Act Used By The FBI To Collect Internet Browsing Data, Contradicting Claims Made To Oversight

from the oh-no-this-must-be-the-first-time-the-IC-has-lied-to-its-oversight-[faints] dept

The NSA shut down its bulk phone records collection -- authorized under Section 215 -- after it became apparent it wasn't worth the effort. Reforms put in place by the USA Freedom Act prevented the agency from collecting it all and sorting it out later. Instead, it had to approach telcos with actual targeted requests and only haul away responsive records. The NSA somehow still managed to overcollect records, putting it in violation of the law. The NSA hinted the program had outlived its usefulness anyway, suggesting it had far better collections available under other authorities that it would rather not subject to greater scrutiny.

But this didn't end the government's bulk records collections. It just ended the phone metadata program. The NSA still collects other records in bulk, including banking records and, oddly, books checked out by library patrons. The broad authority of Section 215 could be read to allow the government collect other records, like email metadata and internet activity. Reasoning that people voluntarily create records of their internet use by using third-party services to surf the web, the government hinted it could sweep these up just as easily as it had swept up call records.

The government's attempt to collect internet history under this authority ran into some friction earlier this year when the Senate voted to block this collection. Senator Ron Wyden directly asked the director of national intelligence (DNI) to inform the Senate whether or not agencies under its purview had gathered internet use records under this authority. He received this answer.

In a Nov. 6 letter to Mr. Wyden, John Ratcliffe, the intelligence director, wrote that Section 215 was not used to gather internet search terms, and that none of the 61 orders issued last year under that law by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court involved collection of “web browsing” records.

Wyden took this response to mean that implementing a ban on collection of internet history records could be put into place without negatively affecting any intelligence gathering activities. But when the New York Times pressed DNI John Ratcliffe on specifics, a new party inserted itself into the conversation: the DOJ. According to its response, the FBI had already done the thing the DNI had just told Sen. Wyden it hadn't.

In fact, “one of those 61 orders resulted in the production of information that could be characterized as information regarding browsing,” Mr. Ratcliffe wrote in the second letter. Specifically, one order had approved collection of logs revealing which computers “in a specified foreign country” had visited “a single, identified U.S. web page.”

So, the FBI was collecting internet browsing records, albeit with an order that only targeted foreign users visiting one US web page. Still, this wasn't what the DNI originally said to Sen. Wyden. This set Wyden off. Again. The supposedly honest answer he received in response to his questions wasn't actually all that honest. As he pointed out in his statement, the belated admission raised questions about domestic surveillance and potential abuse of Section 215 authority to collect something the DNI said no one was collecting. And, if nothing changed, there was no guarantee the Intelligence Community wouldn't talk itself into believing a collection of internet browsing data would be cool and legal.

“More generally,” Mr. Wyden continued, “the D.N.I. has provided no guarantee that the government wouldn’t use the Patriot Act to intentionally collect Americans’ web browsing information in the future, which is why Congress must pass the warrant requirement that has already received support from a bipartisan majority in the Senate.”

Previous attempts to erect a warrant requirement for the collection of internet data or search histories have failed to reach the president's desk. This latest admission has refueled the fire to protect Americans (or visitors to American websites) from government overreach. Even if such a collection targets only foreign internet users, there's no guarantee it won't sweep up US citizens -- like pretty much every other bulk collection has.

At this point, everything is up in the air. There's a new president headed into office who might be more receptive to reform efforts, but he's also the man who served the Obama Administration -- one that wasn't all that concerned about domestic surveillance until it became impossible to ignore the documents leaked by Ed Snowden. Even then, its response was tepid at best and it still allowed IC surveillance business to continue pretty much uninterrupted -- something it used to justify extrajudicial killings based on little more than metadata. This needs to be fixed, but surveillance reform advocates still lack majority support. And the guy headed to the White House has never seemed all that concerned about surveillance abuses.

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Filed Under: 4th amendment, browsing data, bulk records, doj, fbi, fisa, fisc, john ratcliffe, mass surveillance, metadata, nsa, odni, patriot act, ron wyden, section 215, usa freedom act, warrant


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Dec 2020 @ 11:04am

    Reasoning that people voluntarily create records of their internet use by using third-party services to surf the web,

    So avoid surveillance you need to go and live off the land in the backwoods with no modern amenities, and no contact with anybody else.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 8 Dec 2020 @ 11:44am

    One might think that agencies often "misspeaking" about what they are actually doing might rate a tiny bit more than the lack luster response we are getting.
    We proved they were spying on Americans in violation of the law, nothing happened. We have to give up all out rights or the terrorists win!!! The problem is the terrorists did win, we created them on both sides & ours are doing a fantastic job of keeping all of us in terror of what might happen if we don't let them lie, cheat, steal & violate the very bedrock of the nation.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Dec 2020 @ 11:57am

    We have no way of knowing with certainty that "The NSA shut down its bulk phone records collection".

    You cannot believe what they say publicly, nor to Congress, Presidents, courts. They are untrustworthy, Same with CIA and FBI.
    How many times must that lesson be demonstrated ?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    ECA (profile), 8 Dec 2020 @ 12:03pm

    Re:

    Got it the first try.
    Just add a Faraday cage sot he sats ahve problems.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Uriel-238 (profile), 8 Dec 2020 @ 2:05pm

    "books checked out by library patrons"

    The NSA still collects other records in bulk, including banking records and, oddly, books checked out by library patrons.

    One thousand reasons to pirate. Now, one thousand and one. 🏴‍☠️

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Dec 2020 @ 3:27pm

    Re: Re:

    Sad thing about the Faraday cage...
    the phone reception inside is TERRIBLE!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    ECA (profile), 8 Dec 2020 @ 4:02pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    1 person postulated the idea of Putting the antenna outside and run the connection INSIDE. I told them the problem, you are INSERTING the signal past the protection.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 9 Dec 2020 @ 1:19am

    Re:

    Well, what would you expect? The patriot act is the answer to the question; "We don't have evidence, we don't have indications of crime, but we really want to be rid of that troublesome priest or put the screws on him - or the waterboard treatment - until he starts telling us what we want to hear. Now How Do We Do That?"

    It's the one-size-fits-all solution to inconveniences such as human rights and constitutional protection.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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