(OPINION) The Senate is set to vote on the FISA reauthorization bill that includes a provision forcing any company or individual that provides ANY communications service to become a pawn of the National Security Agency’s surveillance grid.
The Section 702 provision of the FISA renewal bill requires any company that hosts any form of communication service to surrender surveillance data to the NSA under a gag order if compelled by the agency.
“Buried in the Section 702 reauthorization bill (RISAA) passed by the House on Friday is the biggest expansion of domestic surveillance since the Patriot Act. Senator [Ron] Wyden calls this power ‘terrifying,’ and he’s right,” wrote Elizabeth Goitein, Co-director of the left-leaning Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice on X Monday.
“Under current law, the government can compel ‘electronic communications service providers’ that have direct access to communications to assist the NSA in conducting Section 702 surveillance.”
“In practice, that means companies like Verizon and Google must turn over the communications of the targets of Section 702 surveillance. (The targets must be foreigners overseas, although the communications can—and do—include communications with Americans.),” she added.
But “an amendment offered by House intel committee (HPSCI) leaders and passed by the House vastly expands the universe of entities that can be compelled to assist the NSA,” she pointed out.
“If the bill becomes law, any company or individual that provides ANY service whatsoever may be forced to assist in NSA surveillance, as long as they have access to equipment on which communications are transmitted or stored—such as routers, servers, cell towers, etc.”
“That sweeps in an enormous range of U.S. businesses that provide wifi to their customers and therefore have access to equipment on which communications transit. Barber shops, laundromats, fitness centers, hardware stores, dentist’s offices… the list goes on and on.”
“It also includes commercial landlords that rent out the office space where tens of millions of Americans go to work every day—offices of journalists, lawyers, nonprofits, financial advisors, health care providers, and more,” she said, adding it also “would encompass hotels, libraries, and coffee shops.”
