Security News > 2023 > September > Feds' privacy panel backs renewing Feds' S. 702 spying powers — but with limits

A privacy panel within the US government today narrowly recommended that Congress reauthorize the Feds' Section 702 spying powers - but with some stronger protections for US citizens only.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board voted 3-2 on party lines to support all 19 recommendations in the Section 702 report, including one that would tighten rules on FBI agents to get approval from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to review Americans' electronic communications.

"Although the Section 702 program presents serious risks to, and actual intrusions upon, the privacy and civil liberties of both Americans and non-Americans, the United States is safer with the Section 702 program than without it," the panel said in a report [PDF] published on Thursday.

"The Board further finds that the most serious privacy and civil liberties risks result from US person queries and batch queries, and the government has not demonstrated that such queries have nearly as significant value as the Section 702 program overall," the PCLOB report added.

Members Beth Williams and Richard DiZinno recommended the "FBI should reform its structure to better incorporate privacy and civil liberties into the fabric of its operations," and the "FBI should improve its Section 702 compliance processes and auditing" with an annual review by the US Department of Justice.

Despite these cybersecurity wins, and the FBI's attempts at Section 702 reform, data privacy and civil liberties advocates say the spying on Americans won't stop unless Congress gives Section 702 a major overhaul.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/section_702_spying/