Technology

As Congress Looks To Give FBI Broad Powers To Sniff Through Your Browsing History Sans Warrant, Wyden Asks ODNI How Often It's Used

4 years ago

Anonymous $-9GJQVHNr8

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200520/17192544542/as-congress-looks-to-give-fbi-broad-powers-to-sniff-through-your-browsing-history-sans-warrant-wyden-asks-odni-how-often-used.shtml

The Wyden Siren is blaring. If you're unfamiliar, Senator Wyden has a pretty long history of what is generally known as Wyden Siren letters to the Director of National Intelligence. Wyden, one of the few Senators who has consistently shown a belief in protecting the civil liberties of Americans, has spent over a decade sending letters to the Director of National Intelligence that always ask questions about how often certain very sketchy surveillance techniques are being used. And, every time he does so, it tends to be a signal that the method in question is used to a massive degree, while the intelligence community is running around insisting that it's nothing to be concerned about. If we've learned one thing, however, in all these years, it's that when Wyden asks these types of questions, it means you'd best pay attention, and the activity in question is happening way more than anyone thought before.
The latest, as first spotted by Zack Whittaker, is Wyden's letter to Acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell asking about how often the intel community and the FBI use their powers to spy on web surfing behavior:

As Congress Looks To Give FBI Broad Powers To Sniff Through Your Browsing History Sans Warrant, Wyden Asks ODNI How Often It's Used

May 21, 2020, 5:43pm UTC

$-9GJQVHNr8

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200520/17192544542/as-congress-looks-to-give-fbi-broad-powers-to-sniff-through-your-browsing-history-sans-warrant-wyden-asks-odni-how-often-used.shtml > The Wyden Siren is blaring. If you're unfamiliar, Senator Wyden has a pretty long history of what is generally known as Wyden Siren letters to the Director of National Intelligence. Wyden, one of the few Senators who has consistently shown a belief in protecting the civil liberties of Americans, has spent over a decade sending letters to the Director of National Intelligence that always ask questions about how often certain very sketchy surveillance techniques are being used. And, every time he does so, it tends to be a signal that the method in question is used to a massive degree, while the intelligence community is running around insisting that it's nothing to be concerned about. If we've learned one thing, however, in all these years, it's that when Wyden asks these types of questions, it means you'd best pay attention, and the activity in question is happening way more than anyone thought before. > The latest, as first spotted by Zack Whittaker, is Wyden's letter to Acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell asking about how often the intel community and the FBI use their powers to spy on web surfing behavior: