Even Lawmakers are speaking out...

                Once again we are faced with more evidence that the NSA is abusing its position and acting in ways that, if not illegal, were certainly not Congress’s intention. One of the more popular claims the NSA has been using is the idea that once disclosed to a third party, all of your information is assumed to be up for grabs. I personally disagree with this notion. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and many others all collect data you volunteer when you use services provided by them. However, the key thing to notice is that I am volunteering my information to these companies specifically in the understanding they are limited in what they will do with it. Nowhere in the terms of service (and yes I actually read some of them) mention that the NSA can peruse my data at its leisure. If it did, then I would no longer use that service. While people have been unsuccessful in targeting that specific doctrine, there is hope in targeting the exact piece of legislature being used by the NSA to justify its collection in the first place, a section of the Patriot Act.

                We have all discussed in class the different ways the EFF is challenging the NSA in court. Here is another one. As reported by ArsTechnica, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) is working alongside the EFF to file an amicus brief. For those who are unaware, Representative Sensenbrenner helped author the Patriot Act. I was pretty shocked to hear this given the Patriot Act’s reputation for secrecy and hidden government court dealings. If even the Patriot Act author is opposed to the collection of American citizen’s information then is this not a further sign that the law is being abused in unexpected ways by the NSA? This is not the first time that a law’s author has accused the government of abusing its position lately. When David Miranda was detained by the UK police under a terrorism law, its author Lord Falconer openly stated that there was no legal basis under said law to Miranda to be detained.

                To hear that so many people are challenging governments’ current interpretations of certain laws is giving me hope that the NSA may actually face repercussions for its actions and perhaps stop spying on Americans (in the distant future that is, given that they are still a government entity and court battles can last forever). Representative Sensenbrenner is not the only person doing this either. Michael Lynch, a professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, and the National Rifle Association have also joined the ACLU vs Clapper court battle seeking to have the metadata collection declared illegal and dropped.

                The NRA involvement was a bit surprising, but the more people willing to speak out against such abuses of our legal system can only help and I certainly hope for more good news in the coming months. More guides are pouring onto the Internet with suggestions on how we can protect ourselves from unjustified spying. Some companies are even taking proactive steps to protect our communications in the future with a phone built specifically with encryption in mind, however skeptical those claims might be. http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/09/worlds-most-secure-smartphone-looks-like-snake-oil-experts-say/

All we can do at this point is hope that the rest of the government might finally step in and resolve this disaster. Some advocates have even pushed for a law that would limit NSA funding should they be found willingly violating our civil rights again. Government agendas can change rapidly depending on the public’s mood, but with more papers from Snowden still being revealed I really doubt that this issue is just going to disappear on its own.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/patriot-act-author-says-nsas-bulk-data-collection-is-unbounded-in-its-scope/