Posted by Susan Molinari, VP, Public Policy and Government Affairs, Americas
We’re grateful that the U.S. House of Representatives just approved the USA Freedom Act, which -- as I
blogged last week -- takes a big step toward reforming our surveillance laws while preserving important national security authorities. It ends bulk collection of communications metadata under various legal authorities, allows companies like Google to disclose national security demands with greater granularity, and creates new accountability and oversight mechanisms.
The bill’s authors have worked hard to forge a bipartisan consensus, and the bill approved today is supported by the
Obama Administration, including the
intelligence community. The bill now moves to the other side of the Capitol, and we hope that the Senate will use the June 1 expiration of Section 215 and other legal authorities to modernize and reform our surveillance programs, while recognizing the importance of protecting Americans from harm. We believe the bill approved today achieves that goal.
The USA FREEDOM Act is not a victory at all. There are only two groups that would think it is.
ReplyDelete1) People who only read the title of the act ("It says freedom!")
2) The NSA
It was gutted ages ago and is not a win for privacy, citizens or the internet as it initially was. Please go read what Justin Amash has to say about it.
Telling us that we won is irresponsible. It's going to convince people that they can now stand down on this issue when they absolutely should not.
The data still gets collected. The only thing this act changed is that it's now supposed to be stored by private companies, but the NSA can still access it. It's actually made the NSA's job more efficient.
Please remove all of your content that calls this a win and replace it with content that informs us that the fight must go on.
Dan, I agree with your points. We should aim to get rid of the so-called "Patriot Act" - not tweek it to make it less unconstitutional. Rand Paul has threatened to filibuster any spying legislation, so unless the RINO leadership stops him, hopefully he'll get lots of support from Constitutional Senators, of whom there are sadly, too few.
ReplyDeleteWhat a crock. So much for all of that false hope & change rhetoric you dolts funneled money into.
ReplyDelete