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Keep Pushing: We Get 10 More Days to Reform Section 702 (eff.org)

by nobody9999 41 comments 192 points
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41 comments

[−] johnea 25d ago
It shouldn't be reformed!

It should be eliminated...

Enforce the 4th amendment!!! Properly interpret the 2nd...

[−] halJordan 25d ago
You know what we haven't applied to computers yet? The 2nd amendment. I deserve to own and carry zero-days at will and use them in self-defense when I feel threatened
[−] cucumber3732842 25d ago
And the 5th, and the 8th, and the 10th (and all the rest but those jump to mind as the most violated).
[−] sneak 26d ago
Reminder: this is their #1 most used tool for collecting data. Snowden told us of the existence of this program under the codename PRISM.

This allows them to download the entire contents of your gmail instantly, directly from Google, without a warrant. Or your iCloud Photos and Backups (complete iMessage history) directly from Apple. No warrant required.

[−] gib444 26d ago
Wait, doesn't the constitution protect people from this?
[−] Noaidi 26d ago
No.

First, FISA was created in 1978 to protect Americans from the CIA by forcing them to show probably casuse. Section 702 of FISA is about intercepting any foreigners communications for which they need no warrent.

But the CIA incidentally collects data of U.S citizens during these warrentless wire taps, and that would be the 4th amendment challenge, but so far that is going nowhere.

[−] rsingel 25d ago
Close but a lot of this, as Sen Wyden points out, turns on how NSA and DoJ lawyers define terms. So you get situations where bulk collection of communications of Americans to Americans into a data center isn't considered interception until a human looks at it. There's so much we don't know because the policies/legal interpretation and the FISA court rulings on them are secret. Sen Wyden tries to warn but he can only hint at the real dangers and policies
[−] WillAdams 25d ago
An important consideration is that just the graph of who talks to whom can be quite powerful:

https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2013/06/09/using-metad...

[−] anonymousiam 25d ago
There's also the game that they play where they spoof BGP announcements that cause routing changes for domestic traffic that makes it flow out and then back into the US, making it fair game for collection. Also, our Five Eyes partners aren't prohibited from collecting on US targets, and we all share.
[−] andai 25d ago
Doesn't "receiving surveillance data about your citizens that your allies collected for you" also count as spying on your own citizens?

I'm not a lawyer but...

"You spied on me!" -"Relax, sweetheart... Of course I didn't spy on you. I got Mike to spy on you. Hey Mike!"

[−] sylos 25d ago
Unfortunately the lawyers did argue and it's legal. They really dug in to the wording and not the spirit of the law
[−] gib444 25d ago
Oh wow, that's crazy because people from the USA are always saying how unique and powerful the Constitution is and how many freedoms the USA has.

It seems almost like the USA is similar to other countries where the state does whatever they like. I bet that can't be true though surely because the USA has so many freedoms? You must be mistaken

[−] LadyCailin 26d ago
The constitution lost its power long ago, and is now a mere fig leaf of legitimacy. Plenty of things ought to be unconstitutional based on a plain reading of the constitution. Civil forfeiture, unlimited gun rights, qualified immunity, FISA courts, various “emergency” powers, deportation of US citizens, etc, etc. The trouble is that a huge portion of Americans don’t really care about any of this, so long as these violations are used to stick it to liberals, all is forgiven.
[−] roysting 26d ago
I find such framing challenging because you are correct, the Constitution lost its power a long time ago, but I would not limit the cause of that lost power to only a rather recent ideological adversary, those you imagine would say “stick it to liberals”.

Unfortunately for everyone but the parasitic ruling class that is plundering America and the world, the changes and damage done to the Constitution in the name of progress have not only been the primary vehicle of that damage from the start, but they have had compounding and exponentially negative effects that are clearly accelerating the impact.

The problem with “progress”, i.e., changes framed as positive, is that it is easy to hijack the innate nature of young people to want to differentiate themselves from their parents as a natural and instinctual process of development/maturity. It allows for malevolent, usually older people, to whisper in the ears of young people things like “don’t you think what your parents do is silly and should be undone?”, not knowing or realizing what their parents do not only protects and preserves, but is also the foundation that allowed everything we have to have been created. It is generally a form of grooming young people to tear down the protective walls holding the Epstein/Biden/Trump Class style super-predators at bay.

I personally am concerned that we are effectively already locked in the dungeon, but we just don’t know it because it has WiFi and is nicely decorated…for the time being.

[−] lioeters 25d ago
The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.

― Frank Zappa

[−] lyu07282 25d ago
Americans deep political confusion is really something to behold. How do you both hold the contradictions in your head? Every presidency no matter it's so called political ideology, liberal or conservative, have the same exact policies on mass surveillance? The Patriot act and fisa amendment was bipartisan, Obama voted for the Fisa amendment, Biden voted for the Patriot act.

The young people conservatives fantasize/complain about tend to be left-wing, their ideology has practically zero representation in politics, how do you make those the scapegoats of some confusing grand Jordan Peterson style social psychology argument it makes no sense. And how does republicans tossing civil liberties to "own the libs" mesh with libs slashing the same civil liberties? It's like the spiderman pointing at each other meme.

[−] WarmWash 25d ago
People don't understand that the way the media makes money is by stoking the "two sides" war.

People are so insanely ideologically charged up, the deepest conviction possible coming right from their lizard brain, all because they are lost in the sauce of an industry that is dependent on showing them random ads as frequently as possible.

It's actually kind of hilarious, and if you're one of these people, take a step back and see what's going on.

[−] lyu07282 25d ago
Exactly, representatives from both parties need to be forced to add FISA amendments that add privacy protections, most of everybody agrees with that enthusiastically if you explain it to them. Yet people are divided into their respective bullshit partisan trench lines by the two party theater.
[−] catlover76 25d ago
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[−] IshKebab 26d ago

> This allows them to download the entire contents of your gmail

Does it though? I believe they did that with PRISM by eavesdropping on the unencrypted data transfers within Google's network itself - without their knowledge. Since that revelation came to light I presume Google have upgraded their security.

[−] 2OEH8eoCRo0 25d ago
I like 702 in theory but I'm not sure I like the FBI having access since they are for domestic policing.

What changes should be made? The probable cause requirement for FBI sounds like a reasonable compromise.

[−] aaron695 26d ago
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[−] fewfew01 26d ago
Might have more people who care if they were still on X. EFF is a lost cause.
[−] grosswait 26d ago
Adapting my reply to a comment:

By leaving X, EFF has made a “politically correct” statement outside their core mission, which alienates potential allies.