By Helen Shamamyan
WASHINGTON, DC – The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee this week approved the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
This means that law enforcement will no longer be allowed to purchase people’s data using databases without obtaining warrants, ensuring the protection of significant constitutional rights of those who go through the processes of the justice system, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU praised the reform, urging the Act to be passed by the House of Representatives as the next step.
Section 702 has become a domestic surveillance method in recent years, said the ACLU, used by FBI agents to target and invade the private communications of activists and protestors, congressional campaign donors, journalists, government representatives, and other citizens of interest.
The ACLU noted the database was originally designed to enable warrantless surveillance of non-citizens abroad for purposes of foreign intelligence.
But, the ACLU adds, “In recent years, however, it has morphed into a domestic surveillance tool, with FBI agents using the Section 702 databases to conduct millions of invasive searches for Americans’ communications — including those of protesters, racial justice activists, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, journalists, and even members of Congress.”
According to Kia Hamadanchy, the senior policy counsel at the ACLU, “It’s more important than ever that we have the freedom to communicate without fear of government surveillance.”
Hamadanchy added, “This bipartisan bill is Congress’s best chance to ensure that Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizures are actually protected and to finally hold the government accountable for its constant abuse of Section 702.”
“Searches conducted by FBI analysts related to social advocacy and non-violent civil protests… pose significant threats to civil liberties” as “The government has identified a significant number of non-compliant queries where government personnel have conducted queries related to instances of civil unrest and protests,” according to the ACLU’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
For instance, the board adds, “FBI personnel in Washington, DC conducted 141 queries of identifiers associated with activists who were arrested in connection with protesting the murder of George Floyd in Washington, DC between June 3 and June 5, 2020, despite the lack of any reason to believe there would be information on these individuals in Section 702 databases.
The FBI analysts lacked a proper justification for searching the activists’ identifier,” as stated by the Report on the Surveillance Program Operated Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Act.
The report asserts “it is concerning that these queries lacking a proper justification were run at all. It is clear that for the FBI, the policies and training that had been in place were plainly insufficient.”
