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Mass surveillance authority Section 702 of FISA, which allows the government to collect international communications, many of which happen to have one side in the United States, has been renewed several times since its creation with the passage of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act. This law has been an incessant threat to privacy for over a decade because the FBI operates on the “finders keepers” rule of surveillance which means that it thinks because the NSA has “incidentally” collected the US-side of conversations it is not free to sift through them without a warrant.
But 2024 became the year this mass surveillance authority was not only reauthorized by a lion’s share of both Democrats and Republicans—it was also the year the law got worse.
After a tense fight, some temporary reauthorizations, and a looming expiration, Congress finally passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) in April, 20204. RISAA not only reauthorized the mass surveillance capabilities of Section 702 without any of the necessary reforms that had been floated in previous bills, it also enhanced its powers by expanding what it can be used for and who has to adhere to the government’s requests for data.
Where Section 702 was enacted under the guise of targeting people not on U.S. soil to assist with national security investigations, there are not such narrow limits on the use of communications acquired under the mass surveillance law. Following the passage of RISAA, this private information can now be used to vet immigration and asylum seekers and conduct intelligence for broadly construed “counter narcotics” purposes.
The bill also included an expanded definition of “Electronic Communications Service Provider” or ECSP. Under Section 702,
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