The NSA’s snooping and collection powers have been halted. Midnight just went, and the NSA lost their illegal powers to spy on US citizens and collect all their information. Rand Paul has been instrumental in protecting the liberty of Americans.
The US Courts of Appeal for the 2nd Circuit, based in New York, recently addressed this issue. Whether or not section 215 of the Patriot Act can be ‘appropriately read’ (meaning, twisted), to allow the NSA to collect all the metadata that they have been collecting.
The Court resulted in stating that the NSA can not under any way collect the information it has been taking. There has to be some relevance to the collection of information. Simply stating that a phone call or another form of communication was made from the US or to the US, is not enough relevance for the data to be snooped upon and taken.
CCN
The logical conclusion from the arguments presented by the NSA, with regards that they put forward that they can collect all metadata of phone communications, would mean that they could (and probably have) collect all other forms of metadata.
This surveillance could include but is not limited to, emails, credit card transactions, hotel bookings, your location constantly, your internet traffic. The NSA can, or already have, the ability to profile every single person in the USA.
Rand Paul on the NSA’s overarching powers:
We are not collecting the information of spies, we are not collecting the information of terrorists, we are collecting all American citizen records all of the time!”
And with the advent of mass usage of smartphones by everyday citizens. Can we summarize with a fair amount of “they probably are” that the NSA was also taking the location of people via phone GPS?
The US Senate was adjourned last night after Rand Paul asserted his right to delay a final vote for a couple of days. However, the lapse in the illegal surveillance of US citizens might only be temporary.
It will be over these next few days where minds and thoughts will be decided within the US. Whether or not their elected representatives will decide to continue the illegal spying on their citizens or respect those that elected them, and carry out their wishes as servants of the state, not masters.
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