What Will Happen to Section 702?
As a refresher, section 702 is the part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act family that allows the intelligence community, with some controls, to collect data on Americans without a warrant. In theory, that process is very controlled, but, it seems, things seem to get out of hand from time to time.
The way section 702 is written, it will sunset on December 31st if Congress does not renew it. That is because, even after 9-11, Congress did not trust the power that 702 grants. Since then, it has been renewed multiple times, every five years.
Each time, Congress adds some more restrictions or controls to the law.
Congress and the intelligence community have been fighting over the renewal all year.
As of now, there are no bills in the hopper to renew 702. Some people, including some in Congress, are happy about that. Others, not so much.
Given that the republicans can’t even agree on who should be speaker, there is no budget to fund the government, no aid for either Israel or Ukraine, where does this fall on Congress’ priority list. That is not clear.
The US intelligence community is not without blame. A litany of reported errors, ethical violations, and at least some criminal activity bearing the telltale signs of having been swept under the proverbial rug have gone a long way in validating the concerns of Section 702’s most ardent detractors.
A report last month describes a number of noncompliant use of raw 702 data. The NSA has been repeatedly caught abusing their access for personal and even sexual reasons.
Law enforcement at nearly every level of government have been documented abusing access to confidential databases.
Apparently, some NSA employees use the database for checking out women they found on online dating sites.
It seems unlikely that it will get renewed without significant additional controls. What may happen is that it does not get renewed at all.
The countdown has started so this will get resolved one way or another in the next two months. Credit: Wired
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