One Final Expansion of the Surveillance State as Obama Heads for the Door

by | Jan 16, 2017

One Final Expansion of the Surveillance State as Obama Heads for the Door

by | Jan 16, 2017

President Barack Obama’s administration ending its eight-year rule by expanding the sharing of intercepted communications and data between federal agencies may feel a little bit like a final giant middle finger to the many critics of the massive, secretive surveillance state.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch just signed off on changes that will increase the ability of the National Security Agency (NSA) to share some raw intercepted data with other agencies before the process of filtering out private information from people unconnected to actual targets. The snooping itself is not changing, but more people will have access earlier in the process.

Specifically this is surveillance authorized by Executive Order 12333, the provisions that outline the conduct of intelligence agencies. These are rules separate from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the PATRIOT Act, and the new USA Freedom Act. The 12333 rules are specifically intended to oversee surveillance of foreign targets and foreign countries. It has very little oversight outside of the executive branch.

Because of the intelligence community’s attitude of “collect everything and sort it out later,” the surveillance taking place through 12333 also ends up gathering all sorts of communications and data from domestic sources. What had been happening is that the NSA would filter out anything other agencies shouldn’t be getting access to and then pass the info along. Under the new rules, these other agencies will be able to search through the raw information itself but would still be required to purge unrelated communications.

Read the rest at Reason here.

Our Books

Shop books published by the Libertarian Institute.

Podcasts

scotthortonshow logosq

coi banner sq2@0.5x

liberty weekly thumbnail

Don't Tread on Anyone Logo

313x0w (1)

313x0w (1)

313x0w (1)

Our Books

Recent Articles

Recent

TGIF: Hurray for the Industrial Revolution!

TGIF: Hurray for the Industrial Revolution!

Unbelievably, in 2025, walking among us are people, many of them young and college-educated, who believe the Industrial Revolution (spawned by the liberal Enlightenment) was a disaster for most of mankind. They yearn for what they imagine was the tranquil, plentiful,...

read more
Trump, India, and the China Hawks’ Horror

Trump, India, and the China Hawks’ Horror

For more than two decades, Washington labored to bring India closer—easing sanctions, opening high-tech trade, recognizing India as a responsible nuclear power, and embedding it in U.S.-led Indo-Pacific strategy. From President George W. Bush’s civil nuclear deal and...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This