Research by Institute Fellow Exposes Surveillance Loopholes
Loopholes that NSA can exploit to conduct largely unrestrained surveillance on Americans by collecting their network traffic “abroad” have been the focus of a recent study by Institute Junior Fellow, Sharon Goldberg, in collaboration with Axel Arnbak of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Quoting that study:
International communications intercepted on U.S. soil are regulated by FISA and are subject to oversight by Congress and the judiciary. By contrast, surveillance on Americans from abroad under EO 12333 is by and large the sole domain of the Executive branch. Designing a surveillance operation to adhere to two main criteria—to not `intentionally target a U.S. person’ (like e.g., bulk surveillance) and to be conducted abroad—allows the the operation to be regulated by the permissive legal regime under EO 12333, thus circumventing constitutional and statutory safeguards seeking to protect the privacy of Americans. [Read the paper]