Tech Companies Line Up Behind Surveillance Reform Bill

A wide range of companies today released their support for a surveillance reform bill that would effectively end the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Reform Government Surveillance, a lobbying group representing many tech companies including AOL (they write my paychecks), came out backing the 2015 version of the FREEDOM Act.

“We support the bicameral, bipartisan legislation, which ends existing bulk collection practices under the USA Patriot Act and increases transparency and accountability while also protecting U.S. national security,” Reform Government Surveillance said in a statement.

“We thank Representatives Goodlatte, Sensenbrenner, Conyers and Nadler and Senators Lee, Leahy, Heller, and Franken, as well as other Members, who have worked hard over the past several months to draft a common sense bill that addresses the concerns of industry, the Intelligence Community, and civil society in a constructive and balanced manner. We look forward to working with Congress to pass this legislation by June 1st.”

The bill comes as a provision of the PATRIOT Act that authorizes the most controversial of the NSA surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden is set to sunset at the end of next month. Though the bill bears the same name as the legislation Congress failed to pass last year, it appears to include concessions to lawmakers concerned about national security that make it weaker than previous proposals.

Read more @ http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/29/tech-companies-line-up-behind-surveillance-reform-bill/

 

The Ars Technica guide to digital policy in the UK’s 2015 general election

What the main parties say they will do in the digital realm if they're elected.

As the passage of the UK's technologically illiterate Digital Economy Act in 2010 demonstrated, many UK politicians are completely at sea when it comes to modern technology. But even they recognize that the digital world forms a crucial part of modern life, and that any political party hoping to enter government needs to have policies for issues the Internet raises. That said, the different political parties have very different views and priorities when it comes to legislating for the digital world.

Ahead of the UK's General Election on May 7, Ars has put together a guide to what the manifestos say on a number of key topics: surveillance; privacy and data protection; copyright and patents; web blocking; freedom of speech; digital rights; and various forms of openness—open data, open standards and open government. The policies come from the following manifestos (in alphabetical order): Conservatives, Green Party of England and Wales, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Pirate Party, Scottish National Party, and UKIP. The Open Rights Group has usefully collected statements on these and a few other areas in the form of a single web page, organized by party.

Surveillance

Reflecting the continuing debate initiated by Edward Snowden's revelations of massive online surveillance conducted by the UK's GCHQ and the US' NSA, the main parties' manifestos all make statements about their views and future plans in this area. Keeping pace with technological changes is a common theme. Labour says: "We will need to update our investigative laws to keep up with changing technology, strengthening both the powers available, and the safeguards that protect people’s privacy."

Read more @ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/30/the-ars-technica-guide-to-digital-policy-in-the-uks-2015-general-election/

 

Whistleblowers vs. ‘Fear-Mongering’

Seven prominent national security whistleblowers Monday called for a number of wide-ranging reforms – including passage of the “Surveillance State Repeal Act,” which would repeal the USA Patriot Act – in an effort to restore the Constitutionally guaranteed 4th Amendment right to be free from government spying.

Several of the whistleblowers also said that the recent lenient sentence of probation and a fine for General David Petraeus – for his providing of classified information to his mistress Paula Broadwell – underscores the double standard of justice at work in the area of classified information handling.

Speakers said Petraeus’s favorable treatment should become the standard applied to defendants who are actual national security whistleblowers, such as Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Jeffrey Sterling (who has denied guilt but who nevertheless faces sentencing May 11 for an Espionage Act conviction for allegedly providing classified information to New York Times reporter James Risen).

Read more @ http://antiwar.com/blog/2015/04/28/whistleblowers-vs-fear-mongering/

 

Whistleblowers Back “Surveillance State Repeal Act”

There is no sign of an end to the erosion of Constitutional liberties that began under George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks and continues under Barack Obama, a group of seven national security whistleblowers said Monday.

“The government chose in great secrecy to unchain itself,” said Thomas Drake, who was working at the National Security Agency in 2001 and said he saw lawlessness spread under the name of “exigent conditions” during the Bush presidency.

Then, as part of Obama’s war on whistleblowers, prosecutors charged Drake under the Espionage Act – a law intended to brutally punish spies – for talking to a reporter. After a four-year long ordeal that the federal judge in his case called “unconscionable,” all 10 felony charges against Drake were dropped in return for his guilty plea to a single misdemeanor.

Now, Drake said, he is throwing his weight behind H.R. 1466, the Surveillance State Repeal Act.

The bill would completely repeal the 2001 PATRIOT Act (which the NSA cites as the legal basis for its bulk phone metadata collection), repeal the FISA Amendments Act (which ostensibly legitimizes Internet spying) and otherwise protect people’s privacy.

Read more @ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/27/whistleblowers-back-surveillance-state-repeal-act/

 

You are being spied on

South African citizens are the subject of electronic surveillance by state security officials who tap phones and intercept communications, two reports released this week reveal.

These revelations of government's investigations into citizens mirror those of the US National Security Agency (NSA), famously exposed by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in 2013.

Although smoking-gun evidence of actual telecoms eavesdropping is difficult to find, due to its secretive nature, Right2Know (R2K) Campaign's Big Brother Exposed report – released yesterday – claims this does happen.

The report alleges SA's security cluster is "becoming increasingly powerful, secretive, and involved in the political affairs of the country" and is targeting community activists for surveillance.

R2K alleges the Crime Intelligence Division of the police service and the State Security Agency conduct intelligence-gathering that includes monitoring Web and social media sites, covertly monitoring phone calls, e-mails and Internet use, and attending community activist meetings. It adds, however, that "many forms of surveillance – especially electronic surveillance – are hard to detect".

Read more @ http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142858

 

Much of NSA bulk surveillance as you’ve known it may soon end

Don’t look now, but much of the National Security Agency bulk metadata collection that stirred so much controversy in the wake of the Edwards Snowden revelations might — just might — be about to come to an end. While civil libertarians still worry about various aspects of the program continuing, this would be no small achievement.

Yesterday a bipartisan group of Senators — led by Republican Mike Lee and Democrat Patrick Leahy — introduced the U.S.A. Freedom Act, a measure that would put an end to the NSA’s bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Things could go wrong from here on out, but it’s a possibility that something like this is going to end up becoming law soon enough — meaning the left-right alliance that has come together against bulk surveillance just might win a partial victory.

Read more @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/04/29/much-of-nsa-bulk-surveillance-as-youve-known-it-may-soon-end/

 

Tech industry pleased with bill to end NSA's bulk collection of data

The technology industry was pleased with the introduction of bipartisan legislation to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone and Internet metadata.

The USA Freedom Act reforms the government’s intelligence-gathering programs in a way that protects Americans’ privacy and national security, sponsors said.

“It enhances civil liberties protections, increases transparency for both American businesses and the government, ends the bulk collection of data, and provides national security officials targeted tools to keep America safe from foreign enemies,” said a joint statement issued by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the committee’s ranking Democrat; Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

The bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

Read more @ http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/washingtonbureau/2015/04/tech-industry-pleased-with-bill-to-end-nsas-bulk.html

 

ACLU won’t support new NSA bill

The Americans Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday quickly pulled support from a congressional bill to reform the National Security Agency. 

The group said the bill, which also reauthorizes portions of the Patriot Act until 2019, does not go far enough and only makes incremental changes. 

“Congress should let Section 215 sunset as it’s scheduled to, and then it should turn to reforming the other surveillance authorities that have been used to justify bulk collection,” said Jameel Jaffer, the group’s deputy legal director. 

The civil liberties group has become increasingly bullish on surveillance reform. Its executive director last week penned an op-ed arguing that letting the provisions expire would be a first step “to ensure that this unlawful and ineffective surveillance finally ends.”

The bill, which will be marked up in the House Thursday, would reauthorize several expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, including one that provides the legal underpinning for the NSA's phone record collection program. 

The bill would end the current bulk collection program and require the government to obtain records from private phone companies using a court order. 

The ACLU also specifically cited concern with a provision that would increase the maximum prison sentence to 20 years for people providing material support or resources to terror organizations. The group called the provision “a significant step backwards.”

The group clarified that it is not actively opposing the bill but it will not support it either.

Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/technology/240318-aclu-quickly-opposes-nsa-bill

 

WH stops short of veto threat on 'clean' Patriot Act renewal

The White House on Wednesday stopped short of issuing a veto threat against a Republican bill that would extend controversial surveillance provisions of the Patriot Act. 

But President Obama is seeking changes that would end Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which the National Security Agency has used to carry out its bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. 

“The president has been quite definitive about the need to make those kinds of reforms a top priority,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday. 

That could set up a high-stakes confrontation between the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over the nation’s spying capabilities with portions of the Patriot Act set to expire June 1. 

McConnell and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) are co-sponsoring a renewal of the Patriot Act without making changes. The Senate leader is fast-tracking the legislation, meaning it will bypass committee review and go directly onto the Senate calendar. 

The measure has attracted support from national security hawks in the GOP. Intelligence officials say the data collection powers are critical to tracking terrorist threats. 

But Earnest applauded a bipartisan measure introduced this week in the House and Senate that would end the NSA’s existing phone-records collection program. Instead, it would require the agency to obtain a court order before collecting records from phone companies.

Read more @ http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/240528-wh-stops-short-of-veto-threat-on-clean-patriot-act-renewal

 


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~