3 ms·

The Surveillance Accountability Act

45 points by Cider9986 7mo ago

Tanoc 7mo ago
The website has no way to actually read the legislation itself, but it can be found here: https://massie.house.gov/uploadedfiles/surveillance_accountability_act.pdf https://massie.house.gov/uploadedfiles/surveillance_accounta... Of note is that the proposed legislation provides a massive loophole on page 3, line 17: "The collection or analysis of information that is lawfully published or voluntarily made available by a person or entity to a public audience, and which requires no circumvention of privacy settings, encryption, or other access controls." So that just means that any given website or service with information that can be public facing on a web page can be set up to be accessed by anybody who knows how to navigate to it, even if it's not on the user's profile page. Or other ways, such as having a request list.
Cider9986 7mo ago
Thomas Massie (R-KY) has drafted a bill with the help of Naomi Brockwell (Ludlow Institute)—and introduced it co-sponsored with Lauren Boebert (R-CO)—which addresses the “third-party loophole” where the US government is able to obtain huge amounts of personal information from data brokers and other data collectors without a warrant or any oversight. The Surveillance Accountability Act would: Require a warrant for targeted investigations Require a warrant for all surveillance Prohibits warrantless use of facial recognition and license plate readers in public spaces Eliminate buying data from data brokers by agencies where a warrant would typically be needed to obtain that data directly Allow people to sue the government when their rights here have been violated More info: Full text: https://boebert.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/boebert.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/surveillance-accountability-act.pdf https://boebert.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/boebert.house.g... https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases/representativ https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases/representativ... https://xcancel.com/RepThomasMassie/status/20473811214788526 https://xcancel.com/RepThomasMassie/status/20473811214788526... https://xcancel.com/mullvadnet/status/2047324151858229526#m https://xcancel.com/mullvadnet/status/2047324151858229526#m
- rglover 7mo ago
  Will this have any muscle in the face of a FISA warrant? Imagine not (domestic vs foreign scope), but relevant as those could be used (as they have been in the past [1]) to more or less circumvent the meat and potatoes here when expedient. [1] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/fisa-section-702-civil-rights-abuses https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/fisa...
Teever 7mo ago
Why do we need new legislation for this instead of just existing legislation? If an individual was to do what these companies do against another individual it would rightfully be considered creepy as fuck and they'd be charged with stalking. That shouldn't change even if someone buys a modern papal indulgence[0] yet somehow it does. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47735751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47735751
- mixmastamyk 6mo ago
  The leg does not address data brokers, but instead govt buying from data brokers to bypass the warrant process.
  - mixmastamyk 6mo ago
    s/leg/bill/

45 points by Cider9986 7mo ago

Tanoc 7mo ago

The website has no way to actually read the legislation itself, but it can be found here: https://massie.house.gov/uploadedfiles/surveillance_accountability_act.pdf https://massie.house.gov/uploadedfiles/surveillance_accounta... Of note is that the proposed legislation provides a massive loophole on page 3, line 17: "The collection or analysis of information that is lawfully published or voluntarily made available by a person or entity to a public audience, and which requires no circumvention of privacy settings, encryption, or other access controls." So that just means that any given website or service with information that can be public facing on a web page can be set up to be accessed by anybody who knows how to navigate to it, even if it's not on the user's profile page. Or other ways, such as having a request list.

Cider9986 7mo ago

Thomas Massie (R-KY) has drafted a bill with the help of Naomi Brockwell (Ludlow Institute)—and introduced it co-sponsored with Lauren Boebert (R-CO)—which addresses the “third-party loophole” where the US government is able to obtain huge amounts of personal information from data brokers and other data collectors without a warrant or any oversight. The Surveillance Accountability Act would: Require a warrant for targeted investigations Require a warrant for all surveillance Prohibits warrantless use of facial recognition and license plate readers in public spaces Eliminate buying data from data brokers by agencies where a warrant would typically be needed to obtain that data directly Allow people to sue the government when their rights here have been violated More info: Full text: https://boebert.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/boebert.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/surveillance-accountability-act.pdf https://boebert.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/boebert.house.g... https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases/representativ https://boebert.house.gov/media/press-releases/representativ... https://xcancel.com/RepThomasMassie/status/20473811214788526 https://xcancel.com/RepThomasMassie/status/20473811214788526... https://xcancel.com/mullvadnet/status/2047324151858229526#m https://xcancel.com/mullvadnet/status/2047324151858229526#m

rglover 7mo ago
Will this have any muscle in the face of a FISA warrant? Imagine not (domestic vs foreign scope), but relevant as those could be used (as they have been in the past [1]) to more or less circumvent the meat and potatoes here when expedient. [1] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/fisa-section-702-civil-rights-abuses https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/fisa...

Teever 7mo ago

Why do we need new legislation for this instead of just existing legislation? If an individual was to do what these companies do against another individual it would rightfully be considered creepy as fuck and they'd be charged with stalking. That shouldn't change even if someone buys a modern papal indulgence[0] yet somehow it does. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47735751 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47735751

mixmastamyk 6mo ago
The leg does not address data brokers, but instead govt buying from data brokers to bypass the warrant process.
- mixmastamyk 6mo ago
  s/leg/bill/