Guest Post by Mark Nestmann
A few days ago, I was speaking to a client who informed me that “the PATRIOT Act expired last week.” She went on to tell me that as a result, she now felt her electronic communications were safe from warrantless government surveillance.
My client, who I’ll call “Debby,” wasn’t correct in saying that the entire PATRIOT Act expired. It’s true that a small section of the law dealing with the bulk collection of phone records expired November 30. But I can’t blame her for believing this entire ill-conceived law no longer exists.
Over the last few months, apologists for the military-industrial-surveillance complex that dominates US politics have warned that America is at grave risk without the bulk records collection program. No less an authority than CIA director John Brennan testified before Congress that the US has been placed at risk by “political grandstanding and crusading for ideological causes.”
You’d think that this comment signified a total dismantling of America’s incredibly sophisticated surveillance infrastructure. But nothing could be further from the truth.
What exactly happened November 30? On that date, the bulk collection by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the call detail records of virtually every phone call made in the US ended. A call detail record doesn’t reveal the content of your phone conversations. But it’s still very revealing, since it shows every phone call made or received, how often you call or receive calls from a particular number, and the duration of each call.
Continue reading “No, the PATRIOT Act Didn’t Really Expire”
