The Next US President Will Have Troubling New Surveillance Powers

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, allows the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), among other agencies, to eavesdrop on calls, texts, and emails traveling through US networks, so long as one side of the communication is foreign.

My question is, do they still do the two hops? Like, I talk to my friend, and my friend talks to another friend who lives in a foreign country, it means that even though I'm not directly communicating with a foreign person, my communications are also caught up in this dragnet simply because I'm in the social network of the person who is communicating with someone foreign. If I recall correctly, it was originally three hops, brought down to two, but it could have always and still be three.

Further, if I understand correctly, this means something as innocent as interacting with a foreign person via a public website where people of a variety nations congregate (like say, reddit, for example), technically any conversations with people you yourself don't know is a foreign person is also a way for you to be caught in this dragnet. You may have zero idea of their nationality, but technically, you fit the bill, you're talking to a foreigner. Now your communications are being monitored.

Anyway I'm pretty fucksure I've been monitored for about 20 years now under such guidelines. Not that anything has happened to me due to it. I wouldn't know if it affected my ability to fly because I am dirt poor and haven't flown since before 9/11. But based on the simple rules of the program, I am most likely monitored. It's absurd.

Also it feels like Biden must be either pretty confident in a win, or pretty confident he will skip the fucking country and tell us to go fuck ourselves if Trump wins, because like... Trump has made crystal fucking clear what he would do with this kind of power: abuse it as deeply as he is possibly allowed.

6 comments

This is going to be one of those chapters in future history books that makes us look like real idiots.
- Haha, books. Those will be phased out.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, allows the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), among other agencies, to eavesdrop on calls, texts, and emails traveling through US networks, so long as one side of the communication is foreign.
My question is, do they still do the two hops? Like, I talk to my friend, and my friend talks to another friend who lives in a foreign country, it means that even though I'm not directly communicating with a foreign person, my communications are also caught up in this dragnet simply because I'm in the social network of the person who is communicating with someone foreign. If I recall correctly, it was originally three hops, brought down to two, but it could have always and still be three.
Further, if I understand correctly, this means something as innocent as interacting with a foreign person via a public website where people of a variety nations congregate (like say, reddit, for example), technically any conversations with people you yourself don't know is a foreign person is also a way for you to be caught in this dragnet. You may have zero idea of their nationality, but technically, you fit the bill, you're talking to a foreigner. Now your communications are being monitored.
Anyway I'm pretty fucksure I've been monitored for about 20 years now under such guidelines. Not that anything has happened to me due to it. I wouldn't know if it affected my ability to fly because I am dirt poor and haven't flown since before 9/11. But based on the simple rules of the program, I am most likely monitored. It's absurd.
Also it feels like Biden must be either pretty confident in a win, or pretty confident he will skip the fucking country and tell us to go fuck ourselves if Trump wins, because like... Trump has made crystal fucking clear what he would do with this kind of power: abuse it as deeply as he is possibly allowed.
- Biden will be 82 by the inauguration. He'll be retired and long past caring about any of this.
No president should have troubling expansive surveillance powers over the people.
The next? My understanding was that similar rules have been in place since Bush Jr, and this was just a reauthorization with minor tweaks.