Tell Congress to Block Section 702 Reauthorization Until it Restores Americans’ Privacy
Petition to Congress:
We urge you to block the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act unless it is packaged with an overhaul of privacy protections for people in the United States.
The CIA, FBI, and NSA are unlawfully abusing this law, which was meant to allow spying on foreign threats, and turning it into a way to spy on Americans. This is a clear violation of their own rules that are meant to protect the privacy of the American people.
These clear and identified privacy violations are a threat to Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. Section 702 is dangerous and unconstitutional. Congress must rein in the government agencies’ out-of-control surveillance of Americans.
Demand Progress recently uncovered documents revealing that the FBI unlawfully scoured massive surveillance troves using the name of a U.S. Congressman.1
This shocking revelation provides further evidence that FBI agents are breaking their own rules by unlawfully fishing through millions of communications warrantlessly swept up under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Section 702 allows government agencies like the NSA and the FBI to collect, use, and share our personal data, including online communications, all without a warrant. But the law only permits the collecting of communications sent to or from any foreign person.2
Whether you agree with its premise or not, Section 702 was meant to gather information about foreigners – in the name of national security – not to spy on Americans.
Congress is considering reauthorizing this controversial provision of FISA this year. With voices from across the political spectrum lining up to say enough with illegal mass surveillance, we finally have a chance to end out-of-control spying on Americans.3
Section 702 allows agencies to sweep in hundreds of millions of communications annually. But now we know that the NSA and FBI are unlawfully using a loophole called a “backdoor search” to spy on Americans.
In the case of a backdoor search, the agencies are using an overly broad search about a foreign target to pull in millions of communications, and then they are searching that massive pool of information using the names of individual Americans.
Last year, the FBI alone conducted up to 3.4 million backdoor searches.4 The unlawful abuses we uncovered, as reported by WIRED, are the latest proof of continuous and widespread misuses of Section 702.5
Right now, there is bipartisan support to end warrantless spying on Americans – perfect timing because part of FISA, including Section 702, must be reauthorized to continue. We must speak out to ensure that Congress overhauls privacy protections to end mass surveillance – or refuses to reauthorize Section 702 altogether.
Sources:
- WIRED, "The FBI’s Most Controversial Surveillance Tool Is Under Threat,” February 10, 2023.
- Brennan Center, “Coalition Document Proposes Reforms to Section 702,” February 2, 2023.
- Washington Post, “The fight over an expiring surveillance authority just kicked off,” January 13, 2023.
- The Daily Beast, “Secret Court: FBI Warrantless Searches Were Illegal ,” October 8, 2019.
- Demand Progress Education Fund, “Timeline of Selected Legal and Constitutional Violations in Programs Operated under Section 702,” 2023.