NSA surveillance expansion bill moves to House for a vote

[Swordsmyth]

The House Intelligence Committee has passed (https://intelligence.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=830) the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 in a partisan 12-8 vote, clearing it for an eventual vote in the House of Representatives. The bill is ostensibly about renewing the FISA Amendments Act's Section 702 for 4 years, but it also expands (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/11/house-intelligence-committees-nsa-surveillance-bill-includes-new-threats-and-old) the list of eligible spying targets.Where the agency previously only had authority to snoop on either foreign powers or an "agent of a foreign power," it would have the authority to surveil anyone who knowingly helps others who conduct "international malicious cyber activity." That looser definition theoretically lets the NSA collect data on people who are only incidentally connected, rather than those directly involved.
There are other issues.


More at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nsa-surveillance-expansion-bill-moves-180100227.html