The FBI is not giving up on its push for more surveillance powers. Thirty-seven privacy and online rights groups, along with private companies like Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, have joined forces to sign a letter opposing the FBI’s proposed new surveillance powers.
These organizations and companies are concerned about a proposed amendment to the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2017. If passed, the amendment would expand the types of data the FBI can request using National Security Letters.
National security letters are legal documents issued by the FBI that can force a company to disclose details about its customers without a court order.
The EFF claims that the FBI has issued over 300,000 national security letters in the last ten years.
Until now, the FBI could use national security letters to gather information about suspects, such as “name, address, length of service, and local and long-distance charges.”
US Senators have reportedly proposed a new amendment to the Electronic Communication Transactional Records (ECTRs) through the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2017, essentially expanding the types of data that could be collected through national security letters, without the need for a court order.
This update will allow the FBI to request data such as “browsing history, email metadata, location information, and the exact date and time a person was online on an account.”
Privacy groups and tech companies argue that this could allow the FBI to infer information about “political beliefs, medical conditions, religion, substance abuse history, sexual orientation, and […] their customers’ movements throughout the day.”
Below is the full letter, signed by organizations such as: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Government Accountability Project and many others.
