Hello friends,
We are pleased to report that the Wikimedia Foundation has signed on
to a coalition
letter
<https://www.aclu.org/letter/coalition-letter-section-702-legislation> opposing
H.R. 4478, a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would
reauthorize and expand some of the U.S. government's illegal mass
surveillance activities.
As outlined in the letter, H.R. 4478 would reauthorize Section 702 of the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act_of_1978_Amendments_Act_of_2008#Foreign_surveillance>,
the law that allegedly permits the government to engage in Upstream mass
surveillance <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_collection>. While we
are currently challenging Upstream mass surveillance in court
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_v._NSA>, we have also
signed on to a number
<https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/2017-10-02_coalition_letter_section_702_backdoor_search_reform.pdf>
of
<https://www.aclu.org/letter/coalition-letter-aclu-and-other-groups-wont-support-current-version-house-surveillance-bill>
letters supporting reform on the legislative side.
Unfortunately, H.R. 4478 is not a reform bill. By expanding the U.S.
government's ability to collect information about its targets (so-called
"about collection") and query government databases without a warrant, It
would likely worsen the threat that Upstream mass surveillance poses to the
privacy and free expression rights of internet users worldwide. As a
result, we decided to join with the American Civil Liberties Union
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_Liberties_Union>, the Electronic
Frontier Foundation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation>, and a
number of other civil liberties advocates, educational organizations, and
civil society groups to oppose the bill.
A committee vote was scheduled today for 21:00 UTC, but has since been
postponed. We will continue watching the bill, and will keep you all
posted. For those of you currently celebrating, happy holidays!
Cheers,
Jim
--
James Buatti
Legal Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
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