<story><title>Warrantless wiretaps? Congress votes yes</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/12/warrantless-wiretaps-congress-votes-yes/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>You&apos;d want to know but could not easily learn from this article that the wiretaps in question here pertain to foreign intelligence surveillance (ie, the government&apos;s authorization to spy on foreign entities).&lt;p&gt;You&apos;d probably also want to know that the hotbutton issue actually at play in this authorization is programmatic surveillance, which is what it sounds like: automated collection and analysis of intercepts. The statutory problem with programmatic intercepts is not that they&apos;re unlawful, but rather that FISA ss written required individual suspicion for every captured communication, which is logistically intractable for this application.&lt;p&gt;The law as written limits the application of programmatic surveillance authorizations:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    An acquisition authorized under subsection (a)–
     
    (1) may not intentionally target any person known at the time of
    acquisition to be located in the United States;
     
    (2) may not intentionally target a person reasonably believed to be
    located outside the United States if the purpose of such acquisition
    is to target a particular, known person reasonably believed to be in
    the United States;
     
    (3) may not intentionally target a United States person reasonably
    believed to be located outside the United States;
     
    (4) may not intentionally acquire any communication as to which the
    sender and all intended recipients are known at the time of the
    acquisition to be located in the United States; and
     
    (5) shall be conducted in a manner consistent with the fourth
    amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
     &lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
None of these points are to suggest that Wyden is wrong to be seeking accountability for FISA warrants or that nobody should be concerned about foreign surveillance or that there aren&apos;t real concerns that foreign surveillance is capturing lots of domestic communication.</text></comment>
<story><title>Warrantless wiretaps? Congress votes yes</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/12/warrantless-wiretaps-congress-votes-yes/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mtgx</author><text>I recommend reading Greenwald&apos;s long article on this. I think he explains better than anyone else the &lt;i&gt;absurdity&lt;/i&gt; of the situation and the shamelessness of the senators who voted for FISA and against the amendments to it:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/fisa-feinstein-obama-democrats-eavesdropping&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/fisa-fei...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>