Breaking down the NSA's announcement about 'about' searches | EFFector

["DAVID FARBER" <dfarber () me com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Kate Tummarello | EFF Activism Team <action () eff org>
> Date: May 18, 2017 at 9:52:52 PM EDT
> To: dfarber () me com
> Subject: Breaking down the NSA's announcement about 'about' searches | EFFector
> Reply-To: Kate Tummarello | EFF Activism Team <action () eff org>
>
> View as a web page
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> In our 718th issue:
>
> MINILINKS
> ANNOUNCEMENTS
> What You Need to Know About 'About' Searches
>
> In most issues of EFFector, we give an overview of all the work we’re doing at EFF. Today, we’re doing a deep dive 
> into a single issue: the NSA's recent announcement that it will no longer conduct "about" searches as part of its 
> Upstream surveillance.
>
> You may have seen the NSA in the news lately announcing that it will no longer use one of its most controversial 
> surveillance techniques.
>
> This is a win for privacy protections, for groups like EFF fighting unlawful surveillance in the courts, and for 
> anyone who pushed for surveillance reform by signing a petition, contacting their lawmakers, or otherwise voicing 
> their concerns about warrantless spying. But it’s only a first step.
>
> So what exactly did the NSA say it would stop doing?
>
> Late in the day on a Friday in April, The New York Times reported—and the agency quickly confirmed—that the NSA will 
> no longer conduct “about” searches of the full content of Internet communications.
>
> “About” searches are searches of online communications—including to and from innocent Americans—that the NSA runs 
> after it intercepts and copies communications directly from the high-capacity cables that carry Internet traffic as a 
> part of its Upstream program. The U.S. government has claimed these warrantless searches of Americans’ email are 
> allowed under Section 702, enacted as part of the FISA Amendments Act, which is set to expire at the end of the year.
>
> While the NSA will continue to look through the “to” and “from” fields of communication to see if they contain any 
> identifiers that the agency has determined are connected to foreign intelligence targets, they will no longer look 
> through the body of those communications to see if they mention—or are “about”—these identifiers. Not only did the 
> NSA stop these searches, the agency said it would delete the “vast majority” of the information it collected under 
> Section 702 “to further protect the privacy of U.S. person communications.”
>
> The NSA has long defended these “about” searches as both necessary for national security and impossible to avoid due 
> to the technical limitations of the Upstream program. In the NSA’s own announcement, it acknowledged that losing 
> “about” searches would cost it “some other important data.”
>
> The NSA’s willingness to give up what it has described as a crucial tool as well as go back and delete communications 
> it has already collected was a welcome but somewhat shocking development.
>
> But, as the NSA admitted, this decision was a result of “inadvertent compliance incidents,” or violations of 
> court-imposed restrictions. In other words, the court tasked with overseeing the NSA’s surveillance programs told the 
> NSA it shouldn’t be doing these privacy-invasive searches of Americans’ communications.
>
> And that’s an argument we’re familiar with. For nearly a decade, EFF has argued in court that “about” searches and 
> other searches and seizures of Americans’ communications without a warrant are unconstitutional. In a case currently 
> in federal court—Jewel v. NSA—EFF is suing the NSA over “about” searches and other privacy-invasive aspects of 
> Upstream surveillance under Section 702.
>
> Despite prolonged stalling from the U.S. government, we’re in the process of finally getting some answers about how 
> the NSA’s surveillance actually works. At the end of this week, we’ll be back in court to figure out just what 
> information the government has to hand over as part of our lawsuit.
>
> In addition to continuing to fight in the courts, EFF is calling on lawmakers to stand up for the privacy of their 
> constituents as Congress considers reauthorizing Section 702 before it expires at the end of this year. These changes 
> should include codifying the NSA’s announced end of “about” searches.
>
> The breadth of these “about” searches was one of the reasons the NSA swept up so many innocent Americans’ 
> communications, so the announced end of “about” searches is good news for anyone who wants government surveillance to 
> follow the law. But there’s much more to be done to rein in unconstitutional spying.
>
> Tell your representatives in Congress to protect their constituents’ privacy and let warrantless Upstream 
> surveillance lapse when Section 702 sunsets at the end of the year. And stay up to date on EFF’s fight in court to 
> end the government’s unlawful invasion of your privacy.
>
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