Supercharged Spying Provision Buried In Terrifying FISA 702 Reauthorization
On Monday, the House finalized procedural business on a bill to reauthorize the nation's warrantless surveillance powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) called "one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history."
"Buried in the Section 702 reauthorization bill (RISAA) passed by the House on Friday is the biggest expansion of domestic surveillance since the Patriot Act. Senator Wyden calls this power “terrifying,” and he’s right," the thread begins.
I’ll explain how this new power works. Under current law, the government can compel “electronic communications service providers” that have direct access to communications to assist the NSA in conducting Section 702 surveillance. In practice, that means companies like Verizon and Google must turn over the communications of the targets of Section 702 surveillance. (The targets must be foreigners overseas, although the communications can—and do—include communications with Americans.) Through a seemingly innocuous change to the definition of “electronic communications surveillance provider,” an amendment offered by House intel committee (HPSCI) leaders and passed by the House vastly expands the universe of entities that can be compelled to assist the NSA.
If the bill becomes law, any company or individual that provides ANY service whatsoever may be forced to assist in NSA surveillance, as long as they have access to equipment on which communications are transmitted or stored—such as routers, servers, cell towers, etc. It also includes commercial landlords that rent out the office space where tens of millions of Americans go to work every day—offices of journalists, lawyers, nonprofits, financial advisors, health care providers, and more.
The amendment even extends to service providers who come into our homes. House cleaners, plumbers, people performing repairs, and IT services providers have access to laptops and routers inside our homes and could be forced to serve as surrogate spies. None of these people or businesses would be allowed to tell anyone about the assistance they were compelled to provide. They would be under a gag order, and they would face heavy penalties if they failed to comply with it.
MY COMMENT: Now that the US government is going full gestapo - thanks to RINO traitors like Mike Johnson - just assume in the near future any service you hire that enters your home cannot be trusted and may be working as spies for the federal government! So I'll tell people what they should do if you need to hire a service: #1 simply unplug the internet modem before they arrive to your home, you do not want them having access to anything modem-related. #2 Any laptop you own should be shut off and put away out of sight with your belongings. If you have a PC just shut if off completely and put the PC tower away, somewhere they won't have any direct access to it! #3 If you have anything else you would not want them to see, throw a tarp over it or hide it, or better yet put it in a locked room where service providers will not have access! It would be wise to keep an eye on them too so no one can easily bug your home. This is the sad state America is in today but it has become the nightmare reality!
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https://www.zerohedge.com/political/supercharged-spying-provision-buried-terrifying-fisa-702-reauthorization