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Editorial: USA Freedom Act limits fall short on data privacy

Fri., June 12, 2015

This editorial from the San Jose Mercury News does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Spokesman-Review editorial board.

The Senate’s passage of the USA Freedom Act last week marks the first time since the Nixon administration that Congress chose to rein in a powerful intelligence agency such as the NSA.

Ending the National Security Agency’s ability to collect data wholesale was a significant step toward reclaiming Americans’ privacy rights. But Congress is not close to restoring a presumption of privacy – or to rebuilding trust in digital communication, the foundation of the tech industry that drives the American economy.

The cost to the tech industry as a result of NSA spying is estimated to reach $200 billion by 2016, as Americans and our European and Asian allies lose confidence in our security software.

The expiration of the Patriot Act signals the end of mass collection of Americans’ phone records without a warrant. But really, the reforms in the USA Freedom Act are modest. They leave intelligence agencies ample room to continue needless invasions of privacy.

For example, the NSA will still be able to obtain metadata from phone companies by seeking a court order, virtually a rubber-stamp process. Intelligence agencies will still be able to collect Americans’ emails older than six months. The NSA will still demand that Silicon Valley companies leave a backdoor entry point for them to peruse searches and social media exchanges.

And surveillance agencies will still be able to snoop on all international communications involving Americans – anyone doing business or talking to loved ones overseas. This will further damage U.S. relationships with allies.

Some privacy advocates want Congress to reprise the Church Committee convened in the wake of Watergate to probe abuses by the CIA, FBI and NSA. But there’s no need: The work was done in 2013 by the President’s Review Group on Intelligence, which included former members of the CIA and NSA and experts on privacy law – not a wide-eyed idealist among them. They made 46 excellent, specific recommendations. Curtailing the metadata collection and increasing the transparency of surveillance programs are among a handful that have gotten traction.

The tech industry can push for implementation of the rest. Increasingly engaged in lobbying, companies can authoritatively argue that effective intelligence gathering does not have to trample Americans’ privacy rights. The public has yet to see evidence that the NSA’s “collect it all” approach to phone records ever thwarted a terrorist.

Politicians increasingly understand the path to the presidency runs through Silicon Valley’s pockets. A record $64 million from this region went to the 2012 presidential campaigns. Valley executives and organizations should insist candidates commit to preserving the fundamental right to privacy essential to Americans’ personal liberty – and, by the way, an essential factor in the industry’s ability to thrive.