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[Misk]

Big News. The recent financial bill contained a very dirty line that essentially gave the CIA, NSA, and so on the authority to collect and retain any data they want without judicial authorization. This got passed because nobody in Congress wants to actually examine this stuff this close to the holidays


To summarize, Section 309 of the bill allows federal agencies to "the acquisition, retention, and dissemination of covered communications subject to the limitation in subparagraph (B ," where "covered communications" is defined as "any nonpublic telephone or electronic communication acquired without the consent of a person who is a party to the communication, including communications in electronic storage."  (And for those curious, sub-paragraph B only has one limitation: a 5 year limitation on how long they can hold the information. And then it goes on to list seven entire exceptions, with the seventh basically saying "if the heads of the agencies want to.")


Full text here.


Even if you're not American, this will inevitably affect you.


If you're in the States, our only shot is to bring this to the President's attention. Sign this petition to start: https://petitions.wh...r-2015/lln5hN5c If it hits 100K white house has to look at it. The President is the only one with the power to overturn this through a veto. Though granted, given his track record, I don't exactly have high hopes. Still, we need to bombard the white house with emails and calls and make it known that this is absolutely unacceptable.


And by all accounts, spread the word.

[Vlad Yvhv]

Asks for too much information. But I'll see if anyone over at Outpost 31 is less paranoid than I am.