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Adopted supporting the 2008 FISA act, 702 monitoring allows the NSA to judicially monitor emails and phone calls of foreign citizens outside of the US but the uncertain law could expire in December if it is not reauthorized by Congress.
While the surveillance jurisdictions described in Section 702 are specifically restricted to overseas foreign targets, the law is uncertain because it seldom accidentally collects information of US citizens, too.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has consistently pushed for additional privacy protections and examined Section 702 for endangering the liberties of Americans who could have their communications received under parts of the statute.
In April, Wyden applauded the NSA’s statement that it would no longer receive emails on the basis that they were simply about foreign targets a system previously allowed under Section 702.
“This resolution ends a practice that could rise in Americans’ communications comprising collected without a license merely for mentioning a foreign target,” Wyden said in a recorded statement at the News.
“For years, I’ve frequently raised concerns that this amounted to an end run throughout the Fourth Amendment. This clearness should be commended,” he said.
Efforts to reauthorize the law could face replaced opposition amid a widespread debate over the intelligence community’s estimate that Russia meddled in the 2016 US election.
President Donald Trump has frequently doubted claims that Russia intervened in the election and raised questions about the use of a monitoring practice known as “unmasking” or showing the identities of Americans who were interacting with foreign officials under surveillance by the US intelligence community.
“We’ve seen unauthorized leaking of classified materials, including the names of American citizens, revealed in intelligence reports,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told News earlier this month. “That’s why the President summoned for Congress to examine this matter and why the Department of Justice and Intelligence Community are performing all they can to stamp out this dangerous trend that threatens the national security.”
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