President Biden has signed legislation to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act despite warnings from privacy experts that the bill could greatly expand the ability for the government to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance. The Senate approved the FISA bill on Friday in a 60-34 vote. Critics include Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who described the bill as “one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.”
Sen. Ron Wyden: “If you have access to any communications, the government can force you to help it spy. That means anybody with access to a server, a wire, a cable box, a Wi-Fi router, a phone or a computer. … If this provision is enacted, the government can deputize any of these people against their will and force them, in effect, to become what amounts to an agent for Big Brother.”