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@BasedMikeLee Don’t fall for the hyperbole. The sky is not about to fall. We must not allow for a “clean”reauthorization of FISA 702. We must continue to fight until we can attach a warrant requirement to FISA 702. Get a warrant!

Released between the Godfathers, Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 film was a passion project – and its tale of a surveillance expert disturbed by what he hears hits even harder in 2024. Ever get the feeling you are being watched? How many cameras caught you on your way to work today? How many companies tracked your buying habits on your lunch break? Where is all this information about you going? These may be obviously pertinent questions in the digital age, when 21st-Century technology gives corporations and institutions unprecedented access to our personal information, but they've been the subject of feverish concern...

A group of House Republicans on Wednesday tanked a procedural vote to begin debate on a bill to reauthorize the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers, leaving the chamber scrambling on how to address the important spy tool before it expires next week. Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats in voting against a rule for legislation to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), blocking the measure from advancing 193-228. The move comes after former President Trump on Wednesday urged Republicans to “KILL FISA” — throwing a wrench in an already contentious debate. The tanked procedural vote also stymies a plan...

You might remember FISA warrants from the infamous and disgraceful Russia hoax saga. Well, they’re making headlines again as lawmakers debate bringing back the use of the 702 FISA warrantless searches that came about after 9/11 and during the Patriot Act frenzy and were used and abused against innocent Americans. ... Everyone’s favorite warrantless surveillance tool, FISA Section 702, returns to the US House of Representatives this week and is expected to go to a full House vote on Thursday. Or, it may all fall apart (again) in the House Rules Committee on Tuesday. This week’s congressional action follows an...

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), along with other members of the U.S. intelligence community, are pushing for Congress to expand Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 in order to fight the ongoing fentanyl crisis.According to the Brennan Center of Justice, Section 702, “Authorizes the government to collect the communications of non-Americans located abroad without a warrant from a court. While this surveillance is supposed to target foreigners, it inevitably sweeps in Americans’ private phone calls, emails, and text messages too.” (snip) However, CIA officials believe in its current form, Section 702 limits the intelligence community from...

@BasedMikeLee Just a few weeks ago, the House was ready to pass legislation prohibiting warrantless searches of Americans’ private communications under FISA 702. A few House Republicans then created a fake “national security” distraction and convinced the House to adjourn. Shameful. @RepThomasMassie The U.S. government uses the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on Americans without a warrant. This week, the House will vote to require the Feds to get a warrant to snoop on Americans. Sadly this vote is likely to fail. I will demand a recorded vote & post results.

The German newspaper Der Spiegel over the weekend revealed that not only did the U.S. monitor the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it also allegedly utilized the American embassy in Berlin as a listening station by means of a windowless structure filled with hi-tech gadgetry on the roof to monitor cellphone and other sensitive communications.An Israeli intelligence analyst has now discovered similar mysterious white structures positioned on the rooftops of many key American embassies including in Beijing, Moscow, and Tel Aviv and published the photos to support his claims. While the structures appear to have a solid exterior, they...

Concerns about public safety will eventually recede, but Big Brother will still be watching. Did somebody say something about never letting a crisis go to waste? That may well have been on California Gov. Gavin Newsom's mind when he announced the installation of hundreds of surveillance cameras in Oakland to address public concerns about crime. Whether or not robberies and assaults decline because of police monitoring, you can bet those cameras will remain in place long after everybody has forgotten the reason for their existence. Crime Fears Become an Excuse for Surveillance"Building on public safety investments in Oakland and the...

The FBI is attempting to rehabilitate the public image of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as Congress has until April 19 to reauthorize it. The bureau recently posted a video to X that features FBI Director Christopher Wray attempting to put a gloss on Section 702 as part of this monthslong campaign. The bureau's timely propaganda did not escape the attention of critics on X, where the post received a community note that read, "The FBI violated American citizens' 4A rights 278,000 times with illegal, unauthorized FISA 702 searches." Among the critics was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah),...

Don’t count the Brits out just yet because there’s still a lot of rebelliousness left in them, and it’s directed against the system and politicians of the globalist New World Order. Sure, Muhammad has been the United Kingdom’s “favorite” name for baby boys since 2016, and yes, London is jokingly referred to a “Londonistan” with its Muslim mayor who infamously quipped that the probability of jihad terror was just “part and parcel” of big-city living, but… there’s also this, from James Saunders at GB News: Ulez vigilantes dress up as Batman as they thwart Sadiq Khan’s enforcement camerasAnti-Ulez activists dressed...

As part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit alleging unauthorized tracking by the company, Google will erase a vast collection of data encompassing the web-browsing histories of millions of users. The class action lawsuit, initiated in 2020, leveled accusations against Google for purportedly deceiving users regarding Chrome's tracking mechanisms while using the private “Incognito” browsing mode. The lawsuit claimed that Google's promotional materials and privacy statements failed to adequately disclose the extent of data collection, including specifics about the websites visited by users.

A Department of Transportation component slammed the brakes following semi-furious opposition to its proposal for "on demand" law enforcement surveillance of commercial vehicles a year and a half ago. It took another six months to turn over the records after a FOIA lawsuit to compel their release, a day before they were due in court Thursday, with no indication yet from FMCSA when it would release a final rule. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had internal conversations about those public comments over several months, including via personal email, at the same time it was stalling a Freedom of Information...

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) renewal deadline is fast approaching as conservative lawmakers and some Democrats continue their push for ending warrantless surveillance. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including conservative and progressive legislators, have called for reforming section 702 of FISA ahead of the April 19 deadline. According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Section 702 is a "key provision of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States, with the compelled assistance of electronic communication service providers, to acquire...

[…]Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), tie the financial freedom of citizens to the government and the banking establishment. The central bank issues its centralized digital currencies, and essentially creates a new monetary system, "fiat on steroids", a system that takes everything that is bad in the fiat system, and adds more of it; surveillance, control, censorship, and enforcement capabilities. A modern prison? Indeed, the CBDC is the ultimate prototype of a prison without physical chains. By connecting CBDCs to digital identity cards, and to government systems such as universal basic income, social credits and more, we get the ultimate control...

A long-promised revolution in banking is headed to Canada, but you might not notice when it arrives, was the sinister headline to a recent The Canadian Press article.The change that is in the works is something called “open banking” and the Canadian federal government has promised framework legislation in next month’s budget to bring the system to Canada.Under open banking, banks allow access and control of customers’ personal and financial data to third-party service providers.One of the biggest areas of growth is in credit assessments, The Canadian Press reported. “Under open banking, lenders could directly access an individual’s banking data,...

Being proved right isn't always fun. Just weeks after my warning in the March issue that our modern high-tech cars are tracking us and sharing data with manufacturers, cops, and parties unknown, came a report of soaring auto insurance premiums because of snitching vehicles. The consequences get worse from there. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your snoopy ride from contacting the mothership. Your Driving History May Be Transmitted and Stored "Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry," Kashmir Hill reported this month for The New York Times. "Sometimes this is happening...

You really need to keep an eye on the Department of Injustice these days because you never know what they're up to. The latest example comes to us from Forbes this week. It involves Google and a collection of YouTube videos that have attracted the attention of the feds. It's not just the creators of the videos who are of interest, however. Forbes uncovered warrants showing that the FBI had demanded user data on everyone who watched particular videos. We're talking about tens of thousands of viewers in some cases. It remains unclear how many of these cases resulted in...

If you've ever jokingly wondered if your search or viewing history is going to "put you on some kind of list," your concern may be more than warranted. In now unsealed court documents reviewed by Forbes, Google was ordered to hand over the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and user activity of Youtube accounts and IP addresses that watched select YouTube videos, part of a larger criminal investigation by federal investigators. The videos were sent by undercover police to a suspected cryptocurrency launderer under the username "elonmuskwhm." In conversations with the bitcoin trader, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on...

City leaders in San Francisco, California, are working to install 400 license plate readers across the area to reduce criminal activity. Leaders and community groups held a press conference on Wednesday to highlight the technology for which the city received a $15.3 million grant to install, KTVU reported. Mayor London Breed (D) said, “This does not include speed cameras. This does not include facial recognition, but it will be useful for Amber Alerts. It will help us to find missing persons as well.”

EXCLUSIVE — Newly released details about a controversial mass surveillance program shed light on the pitfalls of government data acquisition programs as Congress debates reauthorizing a crucial statute. The Drug Enforcement Administration collected massive amounts of telephone records for 20 years before the program was shuttered amid the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013. A heavily redacted inspector general’s report into the program was released six years later, a more forthcoming version of which has been obtained by the Washington Examiner. While the Office of the Inspector General exists to provide oversight of government agencies, among the new details of the...