By Cliff Montgomery – June 18th, 2016
The U.S. Senate is quietly considering “legislation that would empower the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to obtain your Internet records without a warrant” – a collection that would include “your browsing history and records of whom you have emailed and when,” according to a statement released last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
HRW is a non-profit, non-governmental organization fighting for “changes in policy and practice that promote human rights and justice around the world,” according to its website.
The move to provide the FBI with this new sweeping power began when Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) squeezed an amendment into the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act of 2015 “that would give the FBI the power to request electronic ‘transactional records’ ” – information such as a person’s browsing history, log-in dates and times, and email logs – “from Internet service providers if the FBI believes the information would be ‘relevant’ to an international terrorism or espionage investigation,” stated HRW.
The proposed amendment would allow the Bureau to obtain these records without a warrant, and give the FBI an unchecked power to determine whose Internet records might be deemed ‘relevant’, according to HRW.
The FBI would only be barred from immediately accessing the content of your messages, added HRW.
In short, the Cornyn amendment would expand the reach of the federal government’s National Security Letters (NSLs) – controversial legal orders “roughly comparable to an administrative subpoena,” that are used by “various intelligence agencies … to demand certain customer information from communications providers, financial institutions, and consumer credit reporting agencies,” according to the Congressional Research Service.
And it seems the NSLs “are nearly always accompanied by orders forbidding the companies from even disclosing that a request was made,” pointed out HRW.
“A similar proposal … has reportedly been included in the pending [2017] Intelligence Authorization Act,” continued the statement.
Such proposals “would dramatically expand the ability of the FBI to get sensitive information about users’ online activities without court oversight,” boldly stated “a letter urging the U.S. Senate to reject [the] proposed legislation, … [a letter written by] a broad coalition of rights groups, Internet companies, and trade associations,” according to HRW.
The data under consideration for possible FBI seizure can “reveal details about a person’s political affiliation, medical conditions, religion, substance abuse history,” and sexual orientation even if no content is accessed, the coalition letter pointed out.
The final verdict of HRW?
“The awarding of such intrusive powers without proper oversight threatens the human rights of Internet users throughout the U.S. and globally,” declared the rights organization.
These provisions constitute little more than a “misguided effort to give law enforcement access to some of your most private data without a warrant,” stated HRW.
Such proposals provide “a potent reminder of the need for constant vigilance in defending rights from the ever-encroaching shadow of excessive surveillance,” added the human rights group.
