Congress Passes Bill Giving Police Unlimited Access to Citizens’ Private Communications

[iHuman]

Time to Encrypt Absolutely Everything IMHO.

 

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/breaking-congress-secretly-okd-nsa-spying-domestic-criminal-cases-focused-torture/

 

 

 

“One of the most egregious sections of law I’ve encountered during my time as a representative: It grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American.”

Washington, D.C. – In a sneak attack on the civil liberties of all Americans, the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2015 was rushed to the House floor with a dangerous Senate amendment added to section 309 with virtually no debate.

 

The legislation was scheduled for only a “voice vote,” which means that it is simply declared “passed” with voice votes and no record.

This is considered the simplest and quickest voting method, not what one would expect from such an important piece of legislation. For most pieces of major legislation, a roll call vote would be the standard operating procedure.
 

Thankfully, Representative Justin Amash, when catching wind of what was transpiring, went to the House floor to demand a roll call vote so that everyone would have to have their vote recorded.

The fact that this important piece of legislation was handled in this way indicates that this was done intentionally to sneak it past the public eye. It becomes even more suspicious when you realize that it was done concurrently with the CIA torture report being released and the Gruber hearing.
 

It seems clear there was an effort made to slip the vote by without having to answer to the American people, as Congress is well aware that Americans do not want to be spied upon by their government after the revelations by Edward Snowden.

Congressman Justin Amash stated that when he learned this bill was “being rushed to the floor for a vote… I asked my legislative staff to quickly review the bill for unusual language.”

What he says next should raise red flags for every American citizen.

He claims what his staff discovered was:
 

    “One of the most egregious sections of law I’ve encountered during my time as a representative: It grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American.”

The bill in question is H.R. 4681. (Sec. 309)

Rep. Amash wrote a last minute letter to all of his colleagues in Congress to implore them to vote “NO” on H.R. 4681.

Here is the text of that letter:
 

  

  Dear Colleague:

    The intelligence reauthorization bill, which the House will vote on today, contains a troubling new provision that for the first time statutorily authorizes spying on U.S. citizens without legal process.

    Last night, the Senate passed an amended version of the intelligence reauthorization bill with a new Sec. 309—one the House never has considered. Sec. 309 authorizes “the acquisition, retention, and dissemination” of nonpublic communications, including those to and from U.S. persons. The section contemplates that those private communications of Americans, obtained without a court order, may be transferred to domestic law enforcement for criminal investigations.

    To be clear, Sec. 309 provides the first statutory authority for the acquisition, retention, and dissemination of U.S. persons’ private communications obtained without legal process such as a court order or a subpoena. The administration currently may conduct such surveillance under a claim of executive authority, such as E.O. 12333. However, Congress never has approved of using executive authority in that way to capture and use Americans’ private telephone records, electronic communications, or cloud data.

    Supporters of Sec. 309 claim that the provision actually reins in the executive branch’s power to retain Americans’ private communications. It is true that Sec. 309 includes exceedingly weak limits on the executive’s retention of Americans’ communications. With many exceptions, the provision requires the executive to dispose of Americans’ communications within five years of acquiring them—although, as HPSCI admits, the executive branch already follows procedures along these lines.

    In exchange for the data retention requirements that the executive already follows, Sec. 309 provides a novel statutory basis for the executive branch’s capture and use of Americans’ private communications. The Senate inserted the provision into the intelligence reauthorization bill late last night. That is no way for Congress to address the sensitive, private information of our constituents—especially when we are asked to expand our government’s surveillance powers.

    I urge you to join me in voting “no” on H.R. 4681, the intelligence reauthorization bill, when it comes before the House today.
    /s/

    Justin Amash
    Member of Congress

 

 

This bill will allow information gained from domestic spying by the feds, in the name of “terrorism,” to be transferred to local law enforcement for criminal investigations without any type of court order, subpoena or warrant.

This is one of the most drastic changes in U.S. law in our lifetimes and has the potential to turn the U.S. into a true police state.
 

When the feds take what is claimed to be a means of fighting “terrorism” and use it as means of forwarding criminal prosecutions against American citizens, without any court order or warrant, we are on the brink of total tyranny.

We urge everyone to call their Representative and let them know that you do not support H.R. 4681… tell them NO new domestic spying powers!!
 

Please help get the word out and share this information with your fellow Americans!

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/breaking-congress-secretly-okd-nsa-spying-domestic-criminal-cases-focused-torture/#MDumu6Qg7v6mHQOU.99

 

 

[shirgall]

The vote tally https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2014/h558

 

The actual bill is here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr4681eas/pdf/BILLS-113hr4681eas.pdf

 

Please note that the advice to "encrypt everything" means such communications can be stored indefinitely, but unencrypted communications can only be retained for five years unless "reasonably" expected to be part of a crime. Even so, they can retain anything they want for five years, from a quick glance... which has already been done legally since 1972.

 

Regardless, I am bankrupt of trust in governments on this matter.

[Geneloper]

The vote tally https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2014/h558

 

The actual bill is here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr4681eas/pdf/BILLS-113hr4681eas.pdf

 

Please note that the advice to "encrypt everything" means such communications can be stored indefinitely, but unencrypted communications can only be retained for five years unless "reasonably" expected to be part of a crime. Even so, they can retain anything they want for five years, from a quick glance... which has already been done legally since 1972.

 

Regardless, I am bankrupt of trust in governments on this matter.

 

Thanks for the heads-up!

 

Very disturbing. Does this mean that encrypted data can be retained and processed until the code is broken?

 

Once again, I guess this is one war we cannot afford to lose.

[shirgall]

Very disturbing. Does this mean that encrypted data can be retained and processed until the code is broken?

 

Yeah, it's tantamount to saying that if you are hiding your communications you must be doing something shady.

[J. D. Stembal]

Not that my post is entirely relevant, but all year I've been attempting to delete or erase most of my digital footprints. First to go was Facebook, then, every other social media website I've ever used. In the second wave, I attempted to focus on commercial websites and ran into a few snags. For example, NewEgg refuses to delete accounts at all for record keeping purposes.

 

My tertiary objective was to get rid of the bulk of junk mail I receive due to online purchases. It turns out that the best way to do this is to move without giving USPS a forwarding address. Getting off of mailing lists permanently takes a lot of nasty emails and/or phone calls. This is a useful website, if you are thinking about nuking your accounts and data. http://www.accountkiller.com/en/

 

My next objectives are to eliminate my Gmail accounts and to get rid of my eBay/Paypal accounts. My friend was running a mail server at home which I was using for throw away email addresses, but I'm glad I didn't get rid of my primary addresses because his ISP arbitrarily decided to block the ports, and thus, his server went dead.

 

I can't get rid of my eBay and Paypal accounts until more solutions emerge from the Bitcoin braintrust for internet commerce. It's started, albeit slowly. I have yet to actually sell anything for Bitcoins although I've extended the option to a few interested parties outside of official channels.

[shirgall]

An alternative to getting rid of accounts is to compartmentalize. I literally have different instances of my web browsers (and I configure my web browsers to use separate directories on a ram disk for caching purposes) for work and for home purposes. The important thing to remember is to never cross the streams. Nothing is perfect, but car alarms don't prevent thefts of or from cars, they just make them less attractive when easier targets are available.

[J. D. Stembal]

An alternative to getting rid of accounts is to compartmentalize. I literally have different instances of my web browsers (and I configure my web browsers to use separate directories on a ram disk for caching purposes) for work and for home purposes. The important thing to remember is to never cross the streams. Nothing is perfect, but car alarms don't prevent thefts of or from cars, they just make them less attractive when easier targets are available.

 

Do you use Sandboxie for this purpose?

 

The reason I want to be delete customer accounts is that I don't want private companies to keep records of my purchasing history after the fact. I may be naive in my thinking, but if I ask a company to delete my account, I expect that information to be purged from their database at some point in the near future. I don't know if this is feasible in reality, but it's not going to stop me from trying. It's not my concern if they have a record of the transaction for accounting purposes, but I don't want my name or other identifying metadata attached to the transaction.

[shirgall]

Do you use Sandboxie for this purpose?

 

exec /usr/bin/google-chrome --disable-background-mode --user-data-dir=${HOME}/.userdata/${INSTANCENAME}/

 

And .userdata has subdirectories that are links to isolated tmpfs, etc, etc. I have four instances I use at this point (home, work, banking, spare).