US Congress passes surveillance reform bill, bulk phone record collection is gone for good - Polidicks

[url]http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/02/congress-surveillance-reform-edward-snowden[/url] [quote]The US Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would end the bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, the most significant surveillance reform for decades and a direct result of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations to the Guardian two years ago. Senators voted to pass the USA Freedom Act, which overwhelmingly cleared the House of Representatives last month and will now head to the White House for Barack Obama’s signature. The passage of the USA Freedom Act paves the way for telecom companies to assume responsibility of the controversial phone records collection program, while also bringing to a close a short lapse in the broad NSA and FBI domestic spying authorities. Those powers expired with key provisions of the Patriot Act at 12.01am on Monday amid a showdown between defense hawks and civil liberties advocates.[/quote] TLDR only a first step, but it's the first time in decades that surveillance powers have shrunk rather than expanded

Are there any riders on this or anything that we should know about? It seems like it's too good. Surely there's something I'm missing about this.

[QUOTE=Anti Christ;47863317]Are there any riders on this or anything that we should know about? It seems like it's too good. Surely there's something I'm missing about this.[/QUOTE] Mitch McConnell proposed a load of amendments to water it down and shit all over it, but they all got thrown out

So America gets rid of their bulk data collection. Canada puts in bulk data collection. God damn it America you're really starting to get some of your shit together.

[quote]Despite support for the USA Freedom Act from the House, the Obama administration and the intelligence community, McConnell continued to fight changes to the Patriot Act and went from pushing a full renewal through 2020, to a short-term extension to avoid a lapse, and finally to trying to water down the House bill. By the end of it all, the majority leader was left with no other option but to let the USA Freedom Act pass unamended. Among the amendments that failed were a measure that would weaken the USA Freedom Act’s establishment of a de facto privacy advocate to, in certain cases, argue against the government on behalf of privacy rights; an effort to allow the phone collection program to continue for a year instead of just six months, as proposed by the House bill; and another provision requiring the US intelligence chief to certify the implementation of the new phone-records regime.[/quote]

[quote]USA Freedom Act[/quote] If you vote against this, you hate the US [b]and[/b] freedom

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;47863780]If you vote against this, you hate the US [b]and[/b] freedom[/QUOTE] Apparently Mitch miconel hates both then

Eh, I still don't agree with some of the provisions. I don't believe it goes far enough, but it's a start.

Fuck Mitch McConnell.

I thought the freedom act was supposed to be worse than the patriot act?

Bulk data collection is still there, they've just shifted the weight off the NSA onto the telco companies, with the only barrier being a warrant from a FISA (read: secret) court that doesn't even need to specify a target. [QUOTE=source link]"The passage of the USA Freedom Act paves the way for [U]telecom companies to assume responsibility of the controversial phone records collection program[/U], "[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=AugustBurnsRed;47865202]Bulk data collection is still there, they've just shifted the weight off the NSA onto the telco companies, with the only barrier being a warrant from a FISA (read: secret) court that doesn't even need to specify a target.[/QUOTE] I was about to say, watch them blatantly ignore the legislation and just do it anyway.

Lol at anyone actually thinking that US government will stop spying on you because of this.

[QUOTE=AugustBurnsRed;47865202]Bulk data collection is still there, they've just shifted the weight off the NSA onto the telco companies, with the only barrier being a warrant from a FISA (read: secret) court that doesn't even need to specify a target.[/QUOTE] Well, if you read the article: [quote]The NSA, facing legal uncertainty after the Senate failed to pass the bill last month, shut down the bulk collection of US phone records at 8pm ET on Sunday 31 May. But since the bill calls for a grace period of six months to “transition” the program so the phone companies remain the repositories of metadata they generate, the dragnet is now set to relaunch just to be shut down again in December.[/quote] Telecom stores metadata. Federal agencies can procure individual records with a court warrant. No more bulk collection, and the government doesn't store anything it doesn't have a warrant for. Isn't that how it should work?

[QUOTE=AugustBurnsRed;47865202]Bulk data collection is still there, they've just shifted the weight off the NSA onto the telco companies, with the only barrier being a warrant from a FISA (read: secret) court that doesn't even need to specify a target.[/QUOTE] The act [url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1123/text#toc-H1FD772A2FA1341AEBCFEA96D1D69D8D6]specifically prohibits bulk collection[/url] and [url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1123/text#toc-H63F231AFF2DC462283C183E74488D284]requires relevant selection terms to be used[/url] when getting a warrant to collect phone records

And hypothetically if that is correct, do you really think government gives 2 shits about those acts?

[QUOTE=Spirit_Breaker;47865981]And hypothetically if that is correct, do you really thing government gives 2 shits about those acts?[/QUOTE] Yea, why would they go to all this trouble about reauthorising the Patriot Act if they don't care

[QUOTE=Spirit_Breaker;47865981]And hypothetically if that is correct, do you really thing government gives 2 shits about those acts?[/QUOTE] I dunno, they seem to give a shit about the other acts that aren't watered down. [editline]2nd June 2015[/editline] Like I said in the other thread, you've crossed over into the 'Wear Your Tinfoil Hat' territory.

[QUOTE=Spirit_Breaker;47865981]And hypothetically if that is correct, do you really think government gives 2 shits about those acts?[/QUOTE] The "government" passed said acts. The NSA's servers that were conducting this operation have already been shut down. The NSA can't just do whatever the fuck they want.

I hate to be "that guy" but after so many years of corruption and incompetence in Congress, this whole situation smells fishy. This is disturbingly out of character for this Congress, (which is now made up of mostly Republicans who have historically supported anything remotely related with anti-terrorism) to now go against the Patriot Act, which they themselves created. This bill makes me suspicious of their intent and what their next move is.

[QUOTE=adamsz;47872048]I hate to be "that guy" but after so many years of corruption and incompetence in Congress, this whole situation smells fishy. This is disturbingly out of character for this Congress, (which is now made up of mostly Republicans who have historically supported anything remotely related with anti-terrorism) to now go against the Patriot Act, which they themselves created. This bill makes me suspicious of their intent and what their next move is.[/QUOTE] They are most likely trying to set themselves up in a positive light with next year's elections coming up. You can't go into election season with "the party that not only stonewalls everything, but also spies on everyone" and expect good things to happen. By voting against data collection (which was largely unsuccessful anyway) they get to say "we're for the American people, not bigger Government" while not actually doing anything.

[QUOTE=AugustBurnsRed;47865202]Bulk data collection is still there, they've just shifted the weight off the NSA onto the telco companies, with the only barrier being a warrant from a FISA (read: secret) court that doesn't even need to specify a target.[/QUOTE] Fucking knew it before I even opened the thread. This shit will never stop even if it's made illegal, these organisations don't give a single fuck this is just what they do and I severely doubt they've ever cared about the legality of their actions.