I would not assume that all information voluntarily disclosed to some member of the public for a limited purpose is, for that reason alone, disentitled to Fourth Amendment protection.
We write to express our concern about recent reports published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, and acknowledged by the Obama Administration, which reveal secret spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on phone records and Internet activity of people in the United States.
The Washington Post and the Guardian recently published reports based on information provided by a career intelligence officer showing how the NSA and the FBI are gaining broad access to data collected by nine of the leading US.
Internet companies and sharing this information with foreign governments. As reported, the US government is extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person's movements and contacts over time.
As a result, the contents of communications of people both abroad and in the US can be swept in without any suspicion of crime or association with a terrorist organization.
Leaked reports also published by the Guardian and confirmed by the Administration reveal that the NSA is also abusing a controversial section of the PATRIOT Act to collect the call records of millions of Verizon customers.
The data collected by the NSA includes every call made, the time of the call, the duration of the call, and other "identifying information" for millions of Verizon customers, including entirely domestic calls, regardless of whether those customers have ever been suspected of a crime.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that other major carriers, including AT&T and Sprint, are subject to similar secret orders.
This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy.
This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the US Constitution, which protect citizens' right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that protect their right to privacy.
We are calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt this surveillance and provide a full public accounting of the NSA's and the FBI's data collection programs. We call on Congress to immediately and publicly:
1. Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the US is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court.
2. Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance.
3. Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.
Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Sincerely,
4Chan
Access
Advocacy for Principled Action in Government
American Booksellers Foundation for Free ExpressionAmerican Civil Liberties UnionAmerican Civil Liberties Union of CaliforniaAmerican Library AssociationAmicusAssociation of Research LibrariesBill of Rights Defense CommitteeBoingBoingBreadpigCalyx InstituteCanvasCenter for Democracy and TechnologyCenter for Digital DemocracyCenter for Financial Privacy and Human RightsCenter for Media and DemocracyCenter for Media JusticeCompetitive Enterprise InstituteConsumer ActionConsumer WatchdogCorpWatchCREDO MobileCyber Privacy ProjectDaily KosDefending Dissent FoundationDemand ProgressDetroit Digital Justice CoalitionDigital FourthDownsize DCDuckDuckGoElectronic Frontier FoundationEntertainment Consumers AssociationFight for the FutureFloor64Foundation for Innovation and Internet FreedomFree PressFree Software FoundationFreedom of the Press FoundationFreedomWorksFriends of Privacy USAGet FISA RightGovernment Accountability ProjectGreenpeace USAInstitute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA)Internet Archiveisen.com, LLCKnowledge Ecology International (KEI)Law Life CultureLiberty CoalitionMay First/People LinkMedia AllianceMedia Mobilizing Project, PhiladelphiaMozillaNamecheapNational Coalition Against CensorshipNew Sanctuary Coalition of NYCOpen Technology InstituteOpenMedia.orgParticipatory Politics FoundationPatient Privacy RightsPeople for the American WayPersonal Democracy MediaPolitiHacksPrivacy and Access Council of CanadaPublic Interest Advocacy Centre (Ottawa, Canada)Public KnowledgePrivacy ActivismPrivacy CampPrivacy Rights ClearinghousePrivacy TimesredditRepresent.usRights Working GroupRocky Mountain Civil Liberties AssociationRootsAction.orgSamuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest ClinicSunlight FoundationTaxpayers Protection AllianceTechFreedomThe AIDS Policy Project, PhiladelphiaTURN-The Utility Reform NetworkUrbana-Champaign Independent Media CenterWilliam C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI)World Wide Web Foundation
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
The public has a right to know the legal justification for the government's sweeping surveillance - but, until now, those judicial opinions have remained a heavily guarded secret.
