Reauthorizing Mass Surveillance Shouldn’t be Tied to Funding the Government
The program was intended to collect communications of people outside of the United States, but because we live in an increasingly globalized world, the government retains a massive trove of communications between Americans and people overseas. Increasingly, it’s this U.S. side of digital conversations that domestic law enforcement agencies trawl through—all without a warrant.
This is not how the government should work. Lawmakers should not take an unpopular, contested, and dangerous piece of legislation and slip it into a massive bill that, if opposed, would shut down the entire government. No one should have to choose between funding the government and renewing a dangerous mass surveillance program that even the federal government admits is in need of reform.
EFF has signed onto a letter with a dozen organizations opposing even a short-term reauthorization of a program as dangerous as 702 in a piece of vital legislation. The letter says
