Protect Your Online Privacy from the Trump Administration
Sen. Tom Cotton is trying to help the Trump administration spy on our online lives via a bill that would permanently reauthorize an invasive mass surveillance program.
Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act authorizes intelligence agencies (like the FBI and the NSA) to scan in bulk phone calls, text messages and emails traveling across the internet. They're supposed to target only people outside the United States, but they also sweep up enormous amounts of Americans’ communications — without a warrant or any individualized suspicion of wrongdoing.
Given this administration's hostility toward communities of color and activists, the reauthorization of this program would pose a particular threat to marginalized people in the United States.
It's common for Section 702 surveillance to sweep up “family photographs, love letters, personal financial matters, discussions of physical and mental health, and political and religious exchanges” between Americans.1 While this sweeping authority was meant to protect us from the most serious threats to our national security, the FBI regularly uses it to sidestep Fourth Amendment protections and search Americans' personal information for matters entirely unrelated to foreign intelligence. Instead of letting this horrible surveillance dragnet expire, Cotton's bill would make it a permanent fixture of life in the United States.
Section 702 is one of the surveillance programs Edward Snowden exposed. Now it's up to us to protect our online privacy from an administration that’s notorious for abusing its power.
Tell Congress that Sen. Cotton’s bill is unacceptable: Do not reauthorize Section 702 spying.
1. “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, National Security and Privacy Hearing,” Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, May 10, 2016: https://www.c-span.org/video/?409335-1/senate-judiciary-committee-holds-hearing-fisa-reauthorization