Privacy oversight board recommends reform of Section 702

The three Democratic members of the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, an independent agency within the federal branch of the US government, have recommended that the FBI and other government agencies should be required to obtain the approval of a court before reviewing the communications of US citizens collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Board nonetheless recommended that the programme be renewed when it comes up for review at the end of 2023 but was divided about what reforms were needed. Court decisions that have been unsealed show that the FBI has violated the law in querying the foreign intelligence database, including improper searches of the database for information relating to the protests following the police killing of George Floyd and the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. The Board's two Republican members agreed with the White House that the proposal’s requirements are unduly burdensome.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ap-fbi-joe-biden-privacy-washington-b2420393.html

Publication: Independent

Publication date: 2023-09-28

Writer: Eric Tucker