Trump administration pushes warrantless surveillance bill, and we must stop it

This article alleges that the US government is using a hypothetical “drone attack” scenario as an excuse to pass a sweeping surveillance bill:

The Trump administration’s preferred legislationuses a sledgehammer approach where a scalpel is required.

This is a classic case of the government turning an inch into a mile:

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The bill also authorizes these agencies to intercept any wire, oral, or electronic communications used to control the drones—without warrants. Even worse, the legislation allows law enforcement to use and share these warrantlessly wiretapped communications in ways that have nothing to do with the reason for their seizure.

The article concludes with this warning:

Congress must reject this legislation unless it is substantially altered. The current text ignores fundamental privacy protections, allows for broad collection, retention, and sharing of information, and fails to establish any meaningful checks and balances to ensure that its powers are used in ways that respect civil rights and civil liberties. At the hearing, representatives from DHS and the FBI emphasized that the threat of malicious drone use is imminent and extremely dangerous to national security. The threat certainly should be addressed, but it should be done in a way that is mindful of civil liberties. This bill fails that test.

h/t axolotl_peyotl

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