An industry group representing the world's biggest information technology companies, including Google, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft, says its members strongly oppose the Biden administration's continued efforts to dramatically expand key U.S. government surveillance powers. He said he was raising his voice.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on a bill that would extend the global eavesdropping program authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Provisions in the bill, which passed the House last week, known as the Information Reform and Securing America Act (RISAA), threaten to significantly expand the scope of spy programs and force the government to support entirely new countries. It is said to be useful. Business category.
Legal experts say the provision allows the government to recruit virtually anyone with access to facilities or equipment that stores communications data, including “delivery drivers, cleaning contractors, and public service workers,” among others. It claims it could force spies to help Americans access their emails. , phone calls, texts, etc., as long as one side of the communication is foreign.
The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a global technology trade group, currently cites certain provisions of the program known as Section 702 that “significantly expand the scope of covered entities and individuals.” They are asking Congress to avoid passing RISAA. According to ITI, the 702 program included in the House bill will only lead to the loss of domestic and foreign customers to foreign competitors and convince many that U.S. technology is too exposed to government oversight. It will probably happen.
Members of this group include major equipment manufacturers such as Ericsson, Nokia, and Broadcom, as well as major cloud storage providers such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce. “ITI's position is that this provision should be removed,” Janae Washington, the organization's communications director, told WIRED. “Our position is based on the consensus of our members.”
Individual ITI member companies contacted by WIRED for comment on the bill either did not immediately respond or declined to comment.
The provision in question stems from a ruling by the U.S. government's Secret Surveillance Court (FISA Court), which oversees the 702 program. The program is designed to target communications with foreign nationals, including calls and emails with U.S. citizens. To this end, federal law provides that the government can compel assistance from companies that fall into a category called “electronic communications service providers” (ECSPs).
Companies such as Google and AT&T typically fall into this category as direct providers of the services being tapped. But the U.S. government has also moved in recent years to interpret the term more broadly, as part of an effort to expand the list of organizations it is authorized to coerce aid to.
In a decision upheld by its own review body, the FISA Court disagreed with the expanded definition, stating that what constitutes an ECSP must be “reviewed by a government department with powers and constitutional powers that extend to amending the law.” “There remains room for this,” he told the government.
More succinctly, the court reminded the government that only Congress has the power to rewrite the law.