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Two House lawmakers are pushing an amendment that would effectively defund a massive data collection program run by the National Security Agency unless the government promises to not
intentionally collect data of Americans. The bipartisan amendment — just 15 lines in length — would compel the government to not knowingly collect communications — like emails, messages and
browsing data — on Americans without a warrant. Reps. Justin Amash (R-MI, 3rd) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA, 19th) have already garnered the support from some of the largest civil liberties and
rights groups, including the ACLU, the EFF, FreedomWorks, New America and the Sunlight Foundation. Under the current statute, the NSA can use its Section 702 powers to collect and store the
communications of foreign targets located outside the U.S. by tapping into the fiber cables owned and run by U.S. telecom giants. But this massive data collection effort also inadvertently
vacuums up Americans’ data, who are typically protected from unwarranted searches under the Fourth Amendment. The government has consistently denied to release the number of how many
Americans are caught up in the NSA’s data collection. For the 2018 calendar year, the government said it made more than 9,600 warrantless searches of Americans’ communications, up 28%
year-over-year. In a letter to lawmakers, the groups said the amendment — if passed into law — would “significantly advance the privacy rights of people within the United States.” A
coalition of tech giants — including Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft — also rallied behind the amendment. “RGS believes this amendment is a step in the right direction for U.S. foreign
intelligence surveillance policy,” said the Reform Government Surveillance group in a statement. (Verizon Media, which owns TechCrunch, is also a coalition member.) Last year, Section 702
was reauthorized with almost no changes, despite a rash of complaints and concerns raised by lawmakers following the Edward Snowden disclosures into mass surveillance. The EFF said in a blog
post Tuesday that lawmakers “must vote yes in order to make this important corrective.” _Updated with statement from the tech coalition. _ > NSA says warrantless searches of Americans’
data rose in 2018