Guest Post by Mark Nestmann
I got a good laugh earlier this month when a federal appeals court ruled that the National Security Agency (NSA) could no longer collect the phone records of all US persons – and then store them in a massive database.
The laugh didn’t result from the decision itself, which I wholeheartedly support. It came from the media coverage of the ruling, which made it sound like the NSA could no longer vacuum up all of our electronic data without any meaningful limits.
The decisions issued by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dealt with the NSA’s interpretation of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. That section authorizes the government to collect data “relevant” to terrorism investigations. However, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the Bush and Obama administrations interpreted Section 215 as giving the government carte blanche authority to collect the phone records of virtually every person in the US.
This should come as no surprise. For many years, I’ve documented the phenomenon of “surveillance creep,” where a technology or law intended for narrow law enforcement or anti-terrorism purposes is used much more broadly.
- The FBI’s National DNA Index System, originally used to track sex offenders, has expanded to the point where the federal government now collects a DNA sample from every baby born in the US. In effect, newborn babies are now ranked with sex offenders.
- The so-called E911 initiative that makes it possible for emergency responders to locate you when you dial 911 in the US quickly morphed into a massive GPS surveillance initiative. US courts have gone along, on the theory that your cell phone location data isn’t your property, and you therefore have no “expectation of privacy” that it won’t be disclosed.
- And my “favorite” example: In the UK, anti-terrorism legislation now is being used (I kid you not) to investigate dog poop.
And just like DNA surveillance, GPS surveillance, and even dog poop surveillance, the Second Circuit’s ruling will do little or nothing to restrict the NSA from sweeping up our electronic data. That will be true even if Congress fails to reauthorize Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, as appears increasingly likely, and despite the claim by some in Congress that the repeal will “end bulk data collection.”
Continue reading “Even if Congress Repeals the PATRIOT Act, You’ll Still Have Zero Electronic Privacy”
