Security News > 2020 > January > New Bill Proposes NSA Surveillance Reforms

A newly-introduced bill is proposing sweeping privacy reforms to a controversial government surveillance program, which has been previously used by the National Security Agency to vacuum up the call records of millions of Americans.

The bill closes loopholes in vague language used by Section 215 for justifying mass surveillance sans warrant.

For Section 215, Wyden and Daines' bill specifically establishes a three-year limitation on retaining data that is not foreign intelligence or evidence of a crime, and limits the types of criminal cases in which Section 215 information can be used to only include counterterrorism and espionage.

The bill also cracks down on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secretive court that oversees requests for surveillance warrants against foreign spies in the U.S., by expanding third-party, independent oversight of transcripts and documents used in the FISA Court.

On a related note, the bill mandates that the Inspector General to investigate "The use of First Amendment-protected activities as well as race, ethnicity, national origin and religious affiliation to support Section 215 applications," and requires the government to justify gag orders on companies that receive Section 215 orders.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/new-bill-proposes-nsa-surveillance-reforms/152183/