A Note from Restore the Fourth

December 11, 2022

Recently, I was pleased to see an e-mail from Restore the Fourth show up in my in-box. They have been active in protecting us from unreasonable search and seizure (text of the amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ”)

Here’s what they say in the new e-mail:

We’re working on our New Year’s resolutions for protecting Fourth Amendment rights.

In 2023, lovers of freedom have a major opportunity. One of the key laws authorizing mass surveillance, Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, is set to expire. If Congress does not act, the NSA will be deprived of statutory authority for surveillance of “US-to-foreign” communications. Its vast dragnet “incidentally” captures the communications of millions of Americans without a warrant. Then, the FBI accesses that database without a warrant, for domestic law enforcement purposes, performing over 3 million searches each year. These “backdoor searches” circumvent the Fourth Amendment and permit mass domestic surveillance.

We can stop this—but we need your help.

Founded after the Snowden revelations of 2013, Restore the Fourth has already helped secure the sunset of another surveillance law, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, in 2020. The last time Section 702 was up for debate, we secured some transparency reforms. Now, with greater bipartisan support for surveillance reform, we can go further. It’s time FISA went back to authorizing surveillance on an individual, not a mass, basis. It’s time the FBI got a warrant for searches on Americans—and it’s time for the NSA and FBI to come clean, to Congress and the public, about the real scale of what they’re doing. You deserve privacy in your communications and your browsing, instead of a government agent looking over your shoulder at everything you do.

We’ll be talking with folks from Restore the Fourth to see how folks can help—they are looking for both donations and volunteers, so check back here and on their own site. These issues never completely go away; we win some battles, but so do those who would ignore our rights. As the saying goes, “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”, so please join us and Restore the Fourth and keep watching, keep speaking out, and keep sharing information with your friends and colleagues.

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Posted by sallijane

Please Sign: An e-mail message from Ron Wyden

October 5, 2016

The group that originally began this Web site/blog was concerned with the expansion of government surveillance outside that allowed by the FISA Court; then-Senator Obama voted in favor of warrantless wiretapping in July 2008, and as his administration closes 8 years later it seems that the FBI is about to get new surveillance abilities. We supported Barack Obama in 2008, drifted away to various degrees by 2012, and largely moved on to individual projects. However, when something related comes up, one of us will pop over here to spread the word. Here is the correspondence from Sen. Wyden:

An obscure committee in the federal bureaucracy recently voted to allow the FBI to hack into your personal devices and access your personal data without obtaining an individual warrant to do so.

The changes approved by the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules to what is known as “Rule 41” would allow the government to get a single warrant to hack into an unlimited number of computers and digital devices owned by law-abiding Americans if their device was merely affected by criminal activity.

This dramatic and constitutionally questionable expansion of the government’s hacking and surveillance authority is poised to go into effect on December 1 – unless Congress acts. Such a change should be debated by Congress in the light of day – not handed down by unelected bureaucrats.

Here is the link to Sen. Wyden’s petition: https://standtallforamerica.com/petition/stop-mass-hacking/e/

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Posted by sallijane

Innovation Act: stop the patent trolls/Reform ECPA

December 6, 2013

Please check out eff.org for information on our 48-hour window (closing soon!) to comment on the Innovation Act on which the House of Representatives will be voting next week.  It is meant to stop the big patent trolls from intimidating small companies and individuals with lawsuits, etc.  Here is a link to the call campaign: https://trollingeffects.org/call

Also, see The Consent Chronicle’s petition to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by requiring the IRS, FBI, DEA, and local law-enforcement agencies to obtain warrants for E-mail spying.  The petition is on White House site, so you need an account to sign: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-ecpa-tell-government-get-warrant/nq258dxk There is a goal of 100,000 signatures: they are just past halfway, with 57,000+.  Please help!

 

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Posted by sallijane