One week after it was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate has passed what Senator Ron Wyden has called, “one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.” President Biden then rushed to sign it into law.
Section 702 of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) allows the government to conduct surveillance on foreigners in the United States. While the law supposedly prevents intentional surveillance on U.S. citizens, given the mass amount of data that gets collected, this is a meaningless distinction. Not only do government agencies collect the data, but they force private companies (phone companies, internet service providers, etc.) to collect mass amounts of data for them. In addition, this restriction, as weak as it is, is often completely ignored. Courts have routinely criticized government agencies for this but there are no actual consequences.
The bill being discussed here, Reforming Intelligence and Security America Act (RISAA), based on the name I suppose is meant to make you think FISA is being reformed. However, it is not, at least not in any meaningful way. Section 702 remains untouched and merely gets extended another two years.
FIFSA, and by extension RISAA, just go to show how the terrorists won on 9/11.
