EFF action alerts

We all deserve privacy in our communications. Part of that is imposing limits upon the government’s ability to collect and access them. That’s why it’s critical to reform Section 702, the mass surveillance law that creates an end run around our constitutional rights and a back door for the government to query our communications. In the last few weeks, there have been multiple attempts to reauthorize this power with varying levels of reform and compromise. Nearly half of the U.S. House of Representatives supported requiring the government to obtain court approval before accessing Americans’ communications in the government’s Section 702 databases—but at the last minute, the pro-mass surveillance side passed a bill which actually expands, rather than reforms these powers. That’s why we need you to tell the Senate to stop it!

What happened: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is set to expire on April 19. The House of Representatives just passed the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), a reauthorization bill that greatly increases the scope of information the government can collect under Section 702 , and allows the government to use this unaccountable and out-of-control mass surveillance authority to spy on hopeful immigrants and asylum seekers. This move abandons any real argument that this is for terrorism or intelligence only.

The U.S. Senate will likely try to advance this terrible bill this week – a bill that Sen. Ron Wyden called “one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.” He’s right.

Tell your Senators to vote NO on the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act. Our call tool will make it easy for you to call your Senator—it only takes a moment.

We all deserve privacy in our communications, and part of that is trusting that the government will only access them within the limits of the law. But it's now clear that the government hasn’t respected any limits on the intelligence community or law enforcement. When it comes to Section 702, a law that continues to allow spying on Americans, they've ignored our rights.

This April, Section 702 is set to expire, and the current administration will try everything in their power to renew it. We think it’s time for 702 to end entirely and that any future programs must start from scratch in order to protect the privacy of digital communications. EFF will continue to fight to make sure that any bill that does renew Section 702 closes the government’s warrantless access to U.S. communications, minimizes the amount of data collected, and increases transparency. Anything less than that would signal a continued indifference, or contempt, to our right to privacy.

Tell Congress it’s time they protect our privacy!

Congress is pushing two bills that would bring back some of the worst patents and empower patent trolls.

The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), S. 2140, would throw out crucial rules that ban patents on many abstract ideas. Courts will be ordered to approve patents on things like ordering food on a mobile phone or doing basic financial functions online. If PERA Passes, the floodgates will open for these vague software patents that will be used to sue small companies and individuals. This bill even allows for a type of patent on human genes that the Supreme Court rightly disallowed in 2013.

A second bill, the PREVAIL Act, S. 2220, would sharply limit the public’s right to challenge patents that never should have been granted in the first place.

Court after court has recognized that no one can own the text of the law. But the Pro Codes Act is a deceptive power grab that will help giant industry associations ration access to huge swaths of U.S. laws. Tell Congress not to fall for it.

Congress is fast-tracking a bill that would effectively ban TikTok in the US, but do little for its alleged goal of protecting our private information and the collection of our data by foreign governments. Tell Congress: Instead of giving the President the power to ban entire social media platforms based on their country of origin, our representatives should focus on what matters—protecting our data no matter who is collecting it.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) has introduced the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023–an absolutely awful bill that ignores years of abuse and unconstitutional surveillance in order to renew a mass surveillance law with no real changes, reforms, or new oversight.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire on December 31, 2023, and there is currently a race to see what bill will renew Big Brother’s favorite surveillance law. Any reauthorizations must come with significant reforms in order to protect the privacy of people’s communications. To that end, the choice is clear - we urge all Members to vote NO on the Intelligence Committee’s bill, H.R.6611, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023.

The Protect Reporters from Exploitive State Spying (PRESS) Act is a long overdue federal shield law that provides protections to journalists against government surveillance and forced disclosure of confidential sources.

Journalists shouldn’t be forced to choose between protecting their confidential sources or going to prison. But the reality is that both Democratic and Republican administrations have secretly subpoenaed reporters’ emails and phone records to hunt down their sources. That chills essential newsgathering and whistleblowing, and it needs to stop now.