Recently @Ganado told us of a Bill that passed the House (HR 5077) which would allow a Special Agent to seize one's email without a warrant. I have been following this carefully for fear where it would lead but it appears that the Bill was amended to strictly prohibit this. Below is directly from Bill S3017 which is in the Senate now and has not passed yet. I have taken out the line numbers and etc. to make it more readable. I can post the full Bill if anyone wants to read it but it looks like we dodged the bullet. Now, if this passes they will be able to seize your accounts but not what's within them. A bit more info for those that care: HR 5077: Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 Introduced: Apr 27, 2016 Status: Passed House on May 24, 2016 Sponsor: Devin Nunes - Representative for California's 22nd congressional district Republican S. 3017: Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 Introduced: Jun 6, 2016 Sponsor: Richard Burr - Senior Senator from North Carolina Republican Prognosis: 21% chance of being enacted SEC. 803. COUNTERINTELLIGENCE ACCESS TO TELEPHONE TOLL AND TRANSACTIONAL RECORDS. Subsection (b) of section 2709 of title 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: ‘‘(b) REQUIRED REQUIRED CERTIFICATION.—The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the designee of the Director in a position not lower than Deputy Assistant Director at Bureau headquarters or a Special Agent in Charge in a Bureau field office designated by the Director, may, using a term that specifically identifies a person, entity, telephone number, or account as the basis for a request, request the name, address, length of service, local and long distance toll billing records, and electronic communication transactional records of a person or entity, but not the contents of an electronic communication, if the Director (or the designee) certifies in writing to the wire or electronic communication service provider to which the request is made that the name, address, length of service,toll billing records, and electronic communication transactional records sought are relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of a United States person is not conducted solely on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.’’.
Do you think they actually get warrants to get that information? I'm fairly certain that it's all a dog & pony show to make it look like they play along with the Constitution. I'm pretty sure they can ( if they were interested ) see what I type here, even before I hit the "post reply" button. And I don't even own a tin foil hat.
Thank you @Bandit99 !!!!! Did the amended bill pass both the house and the senate yet? cuz the amendments have to be worked out in committee and approved by both the Senate and the House. (i know I am preaching to the choir, just asking if it had. )
seeing it an using it against you.... two different things. If we can't keep it out of the law, we don't stand a chance in hell of remaining free.
The .GOV can do what it wants... Pretty much unfettered.... As long as they do NOT plan to use, what they GET, in a Court of Law... Where they get themselves in trouble, is when they go to build a Case, to present in Court, and can NOT Document, how they Learned, the Information, that they plan on using against the Person., without violating that persons LEGAL Rights.... Like procuring a Legal Warrant, to collect the Information that they introduce in Court, or the Information that lead them to the Information, that they plan on using in Court. This is the BIG Issue with StingRay Devices, and such... They can't get a Warrant for their Use, from a Court, so they MUST come up with another source for the Gathered Information, and Document that, it was Legally gathered, before the Court, which is very hard to do. Otherwise all that Information gathered, and subsequent Information, that was gathered, using the Illegally Gathered Information, becomes "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" and can't be used in Court.
No, it has not passed the full Senate yet. It has passed the House and then it was passed to a committee at the Senate which tweaked it and then passed it to the full Senate where it sits now. Now, I don't think it has to go back to the House because it was not disapproved and the tweaks were minor not changing the gist of the Bill. I have no idea when they will vote on it or even how they come up with a date for the vote.
@CaboWabo5150 and @oil pan 4 "...see what I type here..." "I guarantee they can see it if they want to." I am certain that they monitor sites like this, probably with a data mining type program looking for key words. I doubt they are worried enough about a site like this enough to assign human resources but one never knows. To monitor your specific computer it would takes something on your computer, like a 'keylogger' or something and more than likely your anti-virus would/should pick it up. But, yes, they could break into a individual computer and you would not even know its there - sort of like when an Administration takes over your system to look it over from a different location. And, of course, @BTPost is right, they wouldn't be able to use anything as they obtained the information illegally and opened themselves to a large lawsuit which of course they don't care if they are sued or not, it's not their money. I would bet that they are siphoning off the internet and a large portion of your tax dollars go to purchasing that underground site in Utah where they will or have built the largest super-computer in history and one of its uses is to do those types of things like cracking passwords, tracking a specific IP address...a thousand things.
