Just declassified: US senator caught up in Section 702 FBI surveillance dragnet The FBI improperly spied on a US senator, a state senator, and a state-level judge, among others, according to a previously secret court opinion released Friday afternoon. The freshly declassified April 11 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) opinion concerns the controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence …
Gotta love that the problem is only starting when the analyze the data and directly search for US citizens but nobody has an issue with the database containing so much data about those protected US citzines that it is deemed worth checking.
What are the rules for data acquistion in FISA?
Looks like the TLAs save any communication with any adjactened cell tower an hour before and after any foreigner calls someone on US soil.
You also have to remember that their 100 mile warrant-free zone at US international borders includes international airports, like Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, JFK, and more than 145 more. If you draw a 100 mile circle around each of these, you'll see that the US goverment thinks that most of the US is a warrant-free zone.
"What are the rules for data acquistion in FISA?"
There don't appear to be any. At least none that are enforced. The defence seems to be that so long as a human doesn't "look" at it, they're in the clear. So by extension, using a computer to analyse it and only looking at the results also seems to keep them in the clear too. If data relating to a US citizen then indicates potential wrong-doing, it becomes ok due to "probable cause". NB IANAL, least of all a USA one :-)
What are the rules for data acquistion in FISA?
You may recall from Mr Snowden that the collection is quite separate from selection.
All metadata from anywhere is collected. That means everything you can imagine, and more. Phone calls, web site commentary, emails, spam rejections, twitter trolling, internet port scans, and so on.
The intelligence agencies and others (including executive branch, not just IC people) have access and use the XKEYSCORE system to "select" from the "collection." And they infer what they infer from the metadata thus selected and shown to them.
This very posting to a US-based server (served via CloudFlare) has metadata which will be collected. Since it has a fairly distinct data size (not content, just size), the FIVEY folks could probably trace the metadata with 99% certainty to the words of this comment, based on it's length.
If they look. Since there are so many much more interesting comments and commentards here on El Reg, I'm probably safe.
There is no need for the server to be located in the USA for the data it hosts to be fair game for the collection.
As long as it is operated by a company belonging directly or indirectly to a US-based corporation, it falls under the CLOUD Act scope...
The non-published part of the Act covers also all computers running an operating system provided by an US company (just kidding... or perhaps not)
@ThatOne: “Exactly. The fact your comment is not very "interesting" is a sign that you have something to hide, something potentially very, very dangerous to Western Civilization.”
Using a VPN would also trigger an alert. Not that they will protect your privacy or anonymity.
“You had to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized.”
One of the core questions here that springs to my mind is related to
an FBI specialist broke the rules by running "a query using the Social Security number of a state judge
Why is the FBI specialist involved not facing a lengthy stay in a federal penitentiary ? If the specialist has a written trail of being instructed to run that search then he or she should have a cell mate. While the consequences of breaking this sort of law are a simple slap on the write then these sorts of issues are just going to keep happening.
Not knowing much about social security numbers I expect them to be a quite easy regex to match against and so anyone searching by one should be facing criminal charges
“Why is the FBI specialist involved not facing a lengthy stay in a federal penitentiary ?”
Because we have a two tiered system here in the US.
An example would be the “Hunter Biden tax issue”. DOJ blocks any meaningful action to prosecute him till the statute of limitations expires and he serves no jail time
Any of us tax mules would have lost our home and served jail time for a fraction of the fraud he committed. It is so brazen now that they don’t even deny doing it and the media ignores it and on some platforms you get banned if you talk about it.
The short time I spent in the UK, I was impressed by how much the Queen cared about her people - unlike our leaders here.
"The short time I spent in the UK, I was impressed by how much the Queen cared about her people - unlike our leaders here."
She did. But the monarch has so little power, calling them a "leader" is a pretty long stretch. You probably mean the Prime Minister and/or Cabinet if referring to a "leader[s]" in the UK and they are not that different to those in your country in terms of caring about "the people". Maybe not as extreme as in the USA. Yet.
> But the monarch has so little power, calling them a "leader" is a pretty long stretch.
Dunno 'bout that. I'd've followed The Queen anywhere. Can't say the same about her last few PMs.
Just because someone has the power, doesn't make them a leader: the difference between pushing and pulling. Is a bully a leader?
Politicians like to use the word "leader" as much as they can - it makes them sound so charismatic. And everyone follows suit.
The general consensus among DC lawyers is that Hunter Biden was hard done by. Most normal citizens would have gotten a slap on the wrist as he had already paid the IRS the money due, the interest and a fine for late payment.
The Delaware USA has stated in writing several times that the DOJ and POTUS let him get on with his job which he'd started under the dofus Trump.
It the likes of MTG who should be in jail for distributing pron via email which is a federal crime.
Perhaps you should stop watcing Pox News, Spewsmax and the rest of the MAGA outlets.
IANAL and I do not play one on TV.
Actually I was referring to the statements from witnesses during the recent house hearings, not the news orgs.
The documents supplied from the banks transfers to the shell companies coming from overseas is a bit concerning as well.
As far as the handle “Dimmer” it is intentional. I am smart enough to know that I don’t know everything and most likely not the brightest in the room, so I question, listen and try to source direct info.
My previous post was to entice discussion from others that might be in the know to post info that would contradict what I am seeing. Take a look at the hearings and post back if you can call BS or have more info on any of the witnesses claims.
This post has been deleted by its author
> Not knowing much about social security numbers
"In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number..."
> I expect them to be a quite easy regex to match against
The core of it will be (assuming your regex engine allows this syntax)
\d{9}
but you'll need all the surrounding regex guff to ensure it isn't embedded within a longer string (e.g. it has to surrounded by whitespace or punctuation or start/end of line).
"the FBI has been doing a better job in applying the querying standard" = "We're not breaking the law nearly as often as we used to, so let us keep doing this work without supervision, we promise we'll break the law even less!"
This is why a warrant is a REQUIREMENT of the US Constitution's 4th Amendment. Note that the text doesn't mention "citizens", but "the people", which could arguably include non-citizens and even residents of other countries.
> reason to believe Feds are getting better at not abusing snooping powers
Nah, they just getting better at not being caught.
If you think about it, snooping is what they live for, and the law is irrelevant since they are the law (defending our core values, whatever they might be, and all that).
From TFA: The timing is especially significant: it comes as Congress considers whether to reauthorize Section 702 before it expires at the end of the year. Let's just say it's likely to have one less supporter on the Senate floor.
Alternative scenario: Agent "John Smith" from a TLA visits Senator Pettifog and says, "As you know, Section 702 is coming up for renewal. I've got copies of some interesting photographs you took of you and your secretary on your fact-finding trip to Bermuda. It'd be a shame if your wife were to see those. May we count on your support for renewing Section 702?"
Repeat for each compromised Senator.
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