We have reached a kind of inflection point in the privacy debate because what we know based on this pandemic
is there is gonna be a lot more people sheltered at home. And from the moment they get up in the morning
until the moment they go to bed at night, the internet is arguably the biggest aspect of their life
in terms of communicating with people. They shouldn't have their most intimate information spied on,
snooped over by the federal government without warning.
Before the Senate voted to reauthorize the USA Freedom Act, formerly known as the Patriot Act,
on May 14th. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden fought a losing battle to rein in the broad authority that it gives
US intelligence agencies to spy on the web activities of American citizens.
I think it would be hugely chilling in terms of people's ability to freely access the information
that they most want to see that is private and personal.
It might be your dating history, it might be religious beliefs, it might be your fears, the most private data.
It's like data mining of somebody's thoughts. The Democrat Wyden, along with his Republican colleague,
Steve Daines tried attaching an amendment to the bill that would have explicitly banned government agents
from collecting Americans web search histories without a warrant from a FISA Court.
Now an anti surveillance activist group called Fight for the Future is trying to
convince a Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats to add the same
amendment to the House version of the bill but in a political world where
Democrats regularly called the president a power abusing authoritarian in the
making the president has engaged in abuse of power
undermining our national security our democracy is at peril and Republicans
bolon a deep state plot to take down trump it looks to me like another deep
state attack Democrats are working together with the deep state to
discredit the duly elected president of the United States
there's still only weak support for concrete measures to rein in the post
9/11 surveillance state Nancy Pelosi has spent the last several years saying that
this administration is dangerous she impeached the president for abuse of
power if she doesn't take this opportunity to get this amendment in
place that at least puts some limit on this administration surveillance
Authority it's hard not to feel like the entire resistance rhetoric has been a
bit of a scam Evan Grier is fight for the futures
deputy director she literally can just tack on this amendment it'll get
it'll go back to the Senate it'll pass the Senate and we can actually get one
small piece of this mess fixed once and for all
but Greer says congressional leaders have shown little interest in
restricting the power of US intelligence agencies there's actually a lot of
appetite from members of both parties to rein in some of these overly broad
surveillance programs and it has been leadership on both sides Nancy Pelosi
Adam Schiff on the Democratic side Mitch McConnell on the Republican side has
been incredibly Pro surveillance really it has been leadership that have
repeatedly undermined good-faith attempts to reform some of these laws to
bring them up to date to protect people's privacy this is fundamentally a
question of whether officials like Bill Barr should have the authority to in
effect spy on law-abiding Americans these millions of people who newly spend
many many hours a day at home sheltering in place their privacy rights shouldn't
just be you know tossed aside senator Wyden has often been sort of a bit of a
canary in the coalmine on things like this in terms of he'll ask very specific
questions of intelligence officials when they come on it on the hill that sort of
get at some of these things Greer says widens introduction of the amendment
could be a way of alerting the public that intelligence agencies have already
been collecting US citizens web search data Wyden can't say it explicitly
because that information would be classified does the NSA collect any type
of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans it would be a
repeat of what happened in 2013 when Wyden questioned Director of National
Intelligence James clapper with the intention of tipping off the public that
the government was engaged in bulk collection of phone data no sir it does
not not wittingly I know that often you're
dealing with classified information so you might be limited and what you can
speak to but is there any reason to believe that this is actually happening
I can't get into intelligence matters but just yesterday I inquired as to that
data whether we can get it what it's being used for and we can make that kind
of information public because I believe there's a reporting requirement Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposed Wyden in the Senate claiming that
additional limitations to the nation's surveillance laws would jeopardize
important tools that keep America safe first of all death just flatly
inaccurate Wyden says his amendment addresses McConnell's national security
concerns because in a crisis law enforcement agencies would still be
allowed to gather intelligence before obtaining a warrant if someone in law
enforcement believes that there is a bomb outside Louisville law enforcement
can go and immediately collect the information that is needed to protect
the people and come back after and the fact and settle up on the warrant so I
think that alone shows why Mitch McConnell's arguments off-base a more
modest Senate amendment requiring FISA courts here analysis from opposing
parties such as the ACLU was included in the version of the bill that passed I
have an amendment that would take Americans out of it I don't think it's
constitutional to invest Americans particularly American campaigns with a
secret court I think it uses a less than constitutional standard but Rand Paul's
more radical effort to eliminate the surveillance of American citizens
altogether without a warrant from an on FISA Court was defeated even Wyden voted
against it Senator Paul started an important conversation with respect to
whether the whole framework needs to be reconsidered so this a conversation that
I consider very important and I've told them that right now I think I've got my
hands full trying to make the many reforms that are needed in FISA
immediately Grier encourages anyone concerned about government surveillance
of what citizens are searching for on the web to call Nancy Pelosi Zhou
and pressure her to put a version of the widened Danes amendment one of which is
reportedly being drafted by representative Zoe Lofgren and
representative Warren Davidson back in the bill will give you a short script of
kind of what to say and we'll connect you directly to speaker Pelosi's office
this is incredibly relevant to the situation that we're in now and it's
really important that we remind lawmakers that the public does care
about our right to be free from overly broad and intrusive surveillance
you