
U.S. Senate bill proposes sweeping curbs on NSA surveillance - dan_bk
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/us-usa-nsa-congress-idUSKBN0FY1EM20140729
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junto
Interesting internet habits you have there Senator.

I assume you'll be voting against this new bill Senator?

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jdp23
EFF calls this bill "a real first step because it creates meaningful change to
NSA surveillance right now, while paving the way for the public to get more
information about what the NSA is doing." They've got a quick analysis of what
it does and doesn't do is at [1]

Marcy Wheeler sees it as an improvement over the bill the House passed (which
isn't hard) but isn't sure it's an improvement over the status quo. See [2]
and [3] for her concerns

[1] [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/new-senate-usa-
freedom...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/new-senate-usa-freedom-act-
first-step-towards-reforming-mass-surveillance)

[2] [http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/07/29/leahy-freedom-act-
permi...](http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/07/29/leahy-freedom-act-permits-fbis-
continued-uncounted-use-of-back-door-searches/)

[3] [http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/07/29/leahy-usa-freedoms-
bulk...](http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/07/29/leahy-usa-freedoms-bulky-
corporate-persons/)

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rurban
Call me unconvinced. It follows entirely the flawed US gov interpretation of
"collection", which means collect everything, and only call it "collect" when
if you search through it.

How should this convince the global business that using US IT, telecom and
cloud services is trustworthy and legally safe? There are still massive holes
in a number of public laws and who knows in how many secret laws and
interpretations, not talking about illegal practices. Without a 2nd Church
Committee nothing will change.

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sitkack
Afaik the first Church Committee never ended. Sure Church got shut down[0],
but the committee is still technically "active".

BTW, it would be a good idea to wear a radiation sensor.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Church#Death](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Church#Death)

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higherpurpose
This is the one that got watered down a lot, right? Which would explain its
"wide support", including from the White House.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-
switch/wp/2014/05/22...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-
switch/wp/2014/05/22/why-76-lawmakers-just-voted-against-their-own-bill-to-
reform-the-nsa/)

~~~
ameister14
Nope. This is a different bill; in the article it says: "The bill, which has
White House backing, goes further than a version passed in May by the U.S.
House of Representatives in reducing bulk collection and may be more
acceptable to critics who have dismissed other versions as too weak."

The 'too weak' bill is the one that was watered down.

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ipsin
Now we just need legislation that limits the phone company retention of these
records to (say) three years.

~~~
opendais
I think we really need to stick with 1 year, unless a court action is pending.

I think we should also require the NSA, etc. to reveal their NSL, etc. after 1
year.

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patrickdavey
The article doesn't mention it ... but can they still get around it by (what I
believe is called) traffic shaping? Where you force the traffic to leave the
US, then collect all the "foreign" data, and then send it on its merry way
again?

