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Stop the NSA "Fake Fix" Bill
- ddoolin 13y agoSearching for the legislation? https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s1631 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s1631
- 001sky 13y agoSenator Feinstein is touting this proposal as a way to address the problems with uncontrolled NSA spying, but don’t be fooled: it’s a fake fix. Urgh. Person with something to lose, protecting her power and influence?
- D9u 13y agoIt is plain to see that our government servants are serving interests which are against "We the People."
- eridius 13y agoCrap. Senator Feinstein is my senator. I'm pretty sure sending her a letter isn't going to help.
- hobs 13y agoDo it anyway. Each person who raises their voice may be a little mouse, but a million mice working together can topple anything.
- dmix 13y agoSending Feinstein a bunch of letters is going to help reign in NSA power? Good luck with that. She's a big part of why the NSA is as powerful as it is, because people like her are given total power to watch over the watchers (the secret panels of judges) who watch over the watchers, etc. Each level seems as apathetic to reigning in the NSA's power than the next (including the president). This is a big systemic issue, the political response both by the public and politicians has been embarrassingly impotent, considering the scale of the mass surveillance. Forgive my apathy, but this isn't like SOPA where internet campaigns are going to fix things. The power is already deeply rooted in place and the players involved are not giving it back easily. If you're going to try to counter it via politics, why waste your time sending letters to politicians who are totally complicit in the problem?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nickff 13y ago>Each level seems as apathetic to reigning in the NSA's power than the next (including the president). They are not just apathetic with respect to mass surveillance, they are its main proponents. They have good reason to champion the NSA's programs, as they are some of the most likely targets of any potential plot, and even if they were not physically endangered by a terrorist attack, they would be blamed for it.
- aluhut 13y ago> She's a big part of why the NSA is as powerful as it is, At this point, isn't it unsafe to write letters to such people? You may end up on one of the "lists".
- b6 13y agoI welcome being put on a list, if it happens. I want to be part of this conflict. Something is happening now, and we need to keep pushing.
- javert 13y agoFeinstein is dishonest. No point.
- krisroadruck 13y agoEvery time I hear this woman's name its attached to bad legislation proposals. She didn't manage to strip america of thier 2nd amendment rights so now she's going after our 4th and 5th amendments apparently? How did this women get into office?
- mkramlich 13y agoit also identifies you to them as an enemy of sorts i much prefer a system of feedback/preference in which anonymity is preserved, while also the voter/sender's validity as a natural US citizen individual is assured as well. right now we tend to have one, or the other, but not both
- sown 13y agoMy first reaction was to call up my representatives ... but I wonder if doing so would put me on some kind of 'special' list.
- AsymetricCom 13y agoGood job EFF, when the bill gets inevitably defeated, you can claim a personal victory and solicit for more donations! Put it up with all your other accomplishments on your website you invested so much time and money into achieving.
- jlgreco 13y agoSo what do you suggest the EFF do here, not oppose the bill?
- AsymetricCom 13y agoI suggest they actually do something other than asking the public to publish empty rhetoric via an auto-form. At least they did that one thing a while ago and helped sue the RIAA like 10 years ago when someone already started the case. That was a real big PR win for EFF. They can use all those donations to actually fluff their couch and sip iced tea now and publish more damnations from the comfort of their non-profit internet connection. All the EFF does is take in donations and claim any legal victory as their own, you know because they wrote a letter on their website saying how nasty the defendant is. Thanks EFF! They also help spin pro big-media legislation as victories for information freedom. While people fight against pointless strawmen DRM issues that the industry knows will ultimately fail, the real line is being fortified legally in bills like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Pact has negative conotations) and being enforced at the network level with internet-breaking packet-inspection devices.
- tsaoutourpants 13y agoAre you kidding me? The EFF, along with EPIC, are the two organizations that actually help with modern 4th amendment issues. I don't know where your hate for the EFF comes from, but it's certainly not based on a reasoned analysis of their work over the last decade.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nroose 13y agoI saw a great bumper sticker today: "One nation under surveillance."
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- nyarlathotep 13y agoI don't doubt the EFF, but I am automatically skeptical of anyone who tries to get me to take action without bothering to post the bill or even relevant excerpts.
- csandreasen 13y agoAfter reading the amendment, my take on it is that the EFF article is stating that the whole program needs to be scrapped and criticizing Feinstein for not doing so. Feinstein is apparently of the opinion that the program could be useful and her tactic is instead to put additional oversight in place. Here is what this bill does specify: - Codifies that no message content may be collected under this authority - Specifies that any queries against this data must have documentation showing "reasonable articulable suspicion that the selector is associated with international terrorism or activities in preparation thereof" (note that military/political/counter-espionage/etc. is not listed) - A person meeting the above criteria who travels into the US may continue to be targeted for up to 72 hours. The Attorney General may grant an extension as an "emergency authorization". - A record is to be made for each search against the database of the phone number searched for, the person who searched for it, date and time it occurred and documentation as to why the search was performed. - The documentation for each search must be given to the FISC. The FISC is explicitly granted the ability to terminate any collection if it finds that the search was unlawful. - Directs the FISC to appoint additional personnel with access to classified information and expertise in "privacy and civil liberties, intelligence collection, telecommunications, or any other area that may lend legal or technical expertise to the court." An annual report must be submitted to Congress on the number of personnel appointed. - Any individual who circumvents access to the phone records database will be fined or imprisoned for up to 10 years. - A semiannual report needs to be made to the House and Senate Intelligence Subcommittees with information on all electronic surveillance, physical searches and use of pen registers/trap and trace devices conducted under this act. The report needs to include the total number of requests made to the court, how many were approved/denied/modified, the names of any targets within the United States, compliance incidents, any emergency authorizations, etc. That information, along with any of the documentation mentioned above must be made available on request to the NSA Inspector General, the Intelligence Community Inspector General, DoJ and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board - An unclassified summary of all of the above information needs to be made available to each member of Congress.
- mtgx 13y ago> The documentation for each search must be given to the FISC. The FISC is explicitly granted the ability to terminate any collection if it finds that the search was unlawful. I thought they were already supposed to do that, and the reason they had a "Court" of judges in the first place. Why would I believe anything will change with regarding that Court, once this bill is passed? Also, as Bruce Schneier says, "metadata is surveillance": https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/metadata_equals.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/metadata_equa... They assassinate people with signature strikes based on metadata, so don't say "metadata isn't important". It's deadly so. The solution isn't to allow them to only collect metadata (only in US, seems they will keep collecting everything on "foreigners"), it's to end "mass surveillance", whichever way it's done. Surveillance should only ever be targeted. As whistleblower and former NSA William Binney said recently, NSA used to do that - they didn't always do mass surveillance on every country's individuals. And finally, Feinstein just can't be trusted. For all we know that bill was written by NSA itself, knowing full well how they could "interpret" some of the stuff in the bill.
- kunai 13y agoFeinstein. How is she still in office? She's the spitting image of Dolores Umbridge; an authoritarian freak who has nothing better to do than make the lives of honest individuals completely arduous.
- betterunix 13y agoPeople vote for the lesser of two evils. At some point people stopped understanding that "the lesser of two evils" is still evil.
- MBlume 13y agoAs a Californian I am never not ashamed to have Senator Feinstein representing me. Is there a "tech lobby"? If there is, why is its number one priority not fielding a decent primary challenger to oust this authoritarian disgrace to our state?
- DrewRWx 13y agoShe has seniority in the Senate and it's a "devil you know" situation. Mostly we don't want to Tea Party ourselves by trying to purify our ranks.
- betterunix 13y agoThat is the kind of cowardice that gets you people like Feinstein. Grow a pair and stop voting for her until she gets her act together.
- ceejayoz 13y agoPerhaps, but Tea Partying one's primaries gets you people like Akin.
- hkmurakami 13y agoThat's why I've always voted against her.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoIsn't she retiring after this term?
- samstave 13y agoFeinstein is a terrorist. (Haha iOS attempts to autocorrect Feinstein to festering, perfect)
- zmanian 13y agoThere don't seem to be any obvious points leverage with which to apply pressure on Diane Feinstein. Her age, wealth and long term membership in Senate make her much less vulnerable to standard political tactics. It seems that we need to manipulate the situation so that Diane Feinstein feels that is in her interests to support a more robust set of NSA reforms. I don't feel like I have a complete understand how Senator Feinstein perceives her interests.
- codex 13y agoIt's important to realize that the EFF is not a research institution--it is an advocacy institution. In other words, the EFF doesn't start off with an unbiased view of an issue and then decide what is in the public interest. Instead, it takes predictable positions on a number of issues, and those positions will never change no matter what the facts may turn out to be. After all, it was founded to push an agenda which was pre-defined in advance of its founding 25 years ago. Therefore, you should never read EFF materials with blind credulity as many of the commentators on this post do. They put out propaganda like all advocacy groups do, and it's up to neutral third parties to filter it. To be fair, they're not as bad as other groups (NRA, anyone?) but if you read their output directly, it's up to you to pick out the disingenuous parts, if you can find them, and/or also read opposing views to get the full view. Otherwise, it's like a jury deciding a trial in which only one side presents their case. That's a shame, because I often agree with the EFF, yet I have to do a lot of work to unbend their reality distortion field.
- sehugg 13y agoSounds good. Got any articles on this topic from unbiased research institutions that we can read?
- warmblood 13y agoSpecifically what do you take umbrage with in the case of this bill and the EFF's position? I'm asking as someone who agrees with your overall point but is mystified about what made you post it here under this article specifically.