Privacy Concerns and Potential Reforms

It's consider this where every day we go deep on one big news story . Today, the controversial surveillance law that is due to expire after this week, it has a complicated name Section seven hundred two of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA, but it is key to counterterrorism work. It authorizes US intelligence agencies to intercept the electronic communications of foreign nationals outside the U. S. Section seven hundred two grew out of a secret, warrantless surveillance program conducted by the Bush administration after nine eleven. That is Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois , but there's a fatal flaw at the core of Section seven hundred two . This authority is also used for warrantless spying on innocent Americans. Durbin's criticism, and by the way, it's shared by some Republicans as well is that foreigners talk to Americans . And that creates a potential loophole for government intelligence agencies to comb through that data and surveill the communications of US citizens without a warrant. The FBI has abused seven hundred and two . And that's why we are here today . Let's get seven hundred two reauthorized with constitutional protections . And that is Republican Congressman Keith Self of Texas. Now, some in or close to the intelligence community say that requiring a warrant to access Americans data does not make sense in this case. Here's the late Stuart Baker, who used to be general counsel at the National Security Agency testifying to Congress in January. All of the things that we care about for intelligence purposes are also violations of our criminal law . By saying, Oh, you need a separate warrant if you've got a separate interest in getting access to information we already collected for intelligence purposes. We shouldn't make that mistake with something as important as things like terrorism or espionage. Congress appeared to be moving towards a deal to reauthorize FISA Section seven hundred two without reforms, but stalled over concerns about President Trump's pick for acting director of National Intelligence . And Congress knows the law is set to lapse after Friday. Consider this . How could this crucial intelligence law be amended to address potential privacy violations under the Constitution ? And what happens if the law just expires? From NPR , I'm Elsa Chang . This message comes from Progressive Insurance. You're listening to this podcast, so you've got a curious mind. Did you know that drivers who switch and save with progressive save over nine hundred dollars on average, visit progressive. com and get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates national average twelve month savings of nine hundred and forty six dollars by new customers surveyed who save a progressive between june twenty twenty four and may twenty twenty five. Potential savings will vary. Support for NPR and the following message come from Washington Wise. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington Wise from Charles Schwab is an original podcast that unpacks the stories making news and how they may affect your finances and portfolio. Host Mike Townsend and his guests , explore policy initiatives for retirement savings, taxes, trade, and more. Download the latest episode and follow at Schwab. com slash Washington Yise or wherever you listen. This message comes from better health. Summer can feel like a sprint, kids home, trips to plan, routines flipped upside down. It's easy to slip into survival mode, just trying to get through it. Then suddenly, it's over , and you're wishing you enjoyed the days just a little bit more. Therapy can help you slow down and actually be present for the moments that matter. With better help, you can connect with a licensed therapist from anywhere on your schedule . Don't just survive the summer. Thrive. Visit betterhelp dot com slash and pr om It's consider this from NPR . Under the authority of FISA Section seven hundred two, nearly three hundred fifty thousand foreign nationals were targeted for surveillance in twenty twenty five. That's according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. That is a lot of intercepted emails, texts, and phone calls, some of them with U. S. citizens. Legal advocates like Elizabeth Goytin of the Brennan Center for Justice worry that collecting all that data makes it very easy for government agencies to violate the law and lets them access the communications of Americans who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. Congress was essentially trying to legalize an illegal warrantless wiretapping program that was conducted by the Bush administration after nine eleven. So Congress changed the law in two thousand eight to make it easier to spy on suspected terrorists, foreign terrorists overseas However , over time, it has become a rich source of warrantless access to Americans' communications. And that's why the law is so controversial today. Okay, and we will get to your critique of the law, but the government says Section seven hundred and two is really important. It helps them gather the intel that makes up something like more than sixty percent of the president's daily intelligence briefing. So they say Section seven hundred two is a vital tool for national security , is there at least some merit to that claim ? Sure . The government has actually provided many examples of cases in which actually targeting foreigners and reviewing their communications provided significant national security value. What the government hasn't done is show that there's significant national security value to the practice of warrantless backdoor searches. And that's the practice where agencies search through the communications that they obtain under Section seven hundred two for the purpose of finding Americans phone calls and text messages and emails. In recent years, FBI agents have conducted searches for the communications of members of Congress multiple U. S. government officials, journalists and political commentators , more than nineteen thousand congressional campaign donors and tens of thousands of protesters from across the political spectrum. Okay, so how would you best balance between national security and privacy? Like if Section seven hundred two does do important national security work , how do you give Americans protections for their data without potentially impeding that national security work. Like how would you reform seven hundred two exactly? It's quite simple. For more than a decade there's been broad bipartisan support for reforming Section seven hundred two by requiring the government to get a warrant before accessing Americans communications that are swept up . This reform has actually passed the House twice, but in the current reauthorization cycle, Republican leadership isn't allowing any vot es on this reform . Okay, well on this idea of a warrant each and every time, I could see an intelligence official saying, man, if I need to go get a warrant, if I need to go to court for every search of the FISA database , that would basically break the system, rendering this whole law useless. What is your response to that? The value of Section seven hundred two overwhelmingly is in collecting and reviewing foreigners communications. So that value continues. It is not affected . And in all of the cases where backdoor searchers have actually