Washington — The Senate Judiciary Committee holds its first hearing Wednesday on reauthorizing the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015. The Computer & Communications Industry Association is calling on senators to maintain due process and civil liberties protections for US citizens under current surveillance authority and to use this periodic reauthorization to re-evaluate whether the law continues to fit its purpose.
CCIA has fought unreasonable expansion of government surveillance for more than a decade. The following can be attributed to CCIA President & CEO Ed Black:
“As the capabilities to collect and examine personal data grow more advanced, it will be tempting for any government to expand surveillance. That is why countries like the US, which value democracy, must ensure that surveillance practices respect personal freedom and protect civil liberties.
“The USA FREEDOM Act was a landmark measure that restricted bulk collection authority and improved the transparency measures for government surveillance. However, recent revelations concerning abuses of Section 702 authority and the operation of the Call Detail Records program underscore the need to extend existing civil liberties protections and to ensure that any reauthorization of surveillance authority contains sufficient protections for Americans’ privacy against overbroad and unauthorized government surveillance.”