In 2008, Congress passed a set of updates to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), including Section 702 which authorized warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. persons reasonably believed to be outside the country. However, documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that 702 was being used far more heavily than many expected, serving as the legal basis for the collection of large quantities of telephone and Internet traffic passing through the United States (and unlike 215, including content rather than just metadata). Still, as 702 only permits overseas collection, most criticism of the provision has come from abroad. But many domestic privacy advocates also worry that large amounts of American communication are being swept up “incidentally” and then used as well.
Latest in FISA: 702 Collection
Most notably, the court warned that, if these violations continue, the number of FBI officials with access to FISA-sourced data could be “substantially limited.”
Let’s take a closer look at incidental collection, FBI querying, and the Fourth Amendment as we head into a potential 702 sunset.
Section 702 could be your next big cybersecurity tool.
The Bureau released to the public two internal documents distributed in 2021 outlining procedures for the query of FISA information.
The attorney general and director of national intelligence co-authored a letter to congressional leadership urging the reauthorization of an intelligence-gathering provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance ACT (FISA).
U.S. intelligence agencies rely on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor more than 200,000 overseas targets. But will next year be its last?
On Dec. 8, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld the conviction of an Uzbek immigrant that relied on information obtained through warrantless foreign intelligence surveillance.
The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, claimed that the NSA’s “Upstream” surveillance program captures its international communications and is a violation of its First Amendment free-speech rights and its Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.
On Aug. 10, the Director of National Intelligence released its 21st Joint Assessment of Section 702 Compliance, which covers June 1, 2018 to Nov. 30, 2018. The semiannual report is produced in compliance with the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.
Is the FISC failing its responsibilities with respect to the function it performs in the Section 702 program? Given the role the FISC is intended to play with respect to its oversight of the Section 702 program, the answer is no.