The US Senate voted to allow government agencies, including FBI and CIA, to access users’ browsing history without filing a warrant.
The US Senate on Wednesday (US time) voted to allow government agencies — including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) — to access users’ browsing history without filing a warrant.
This would mean that government agencies wouldn’t need to show probable cause for believing users have committed a crime before requiring their internet service providers (ISPs) to hand over its records on their web browsing and search histories.
The US Senate was being asked to reauthorize the Patriot Act — an act that would give government agencies powers to carry out mass electronic surveillance of citizens in the United States. Three amendments were put forward, and these are the following:
- An amendment on preventing the warrantless access to users’ web browsing history. In a report from Endgadget, the said amendment failed to pass as it came up one vote short from the required number of votes to 60, adding that Ben Sasse and Bernie Sanders didn’t vote for the said amendment.
- An amendment on allowing judges to rule on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests to seek input from independent experts. While the first amendment failed to pass, this amendment successfully passed as it came up 77-19.
- An amendment on requiring warrants to carry out Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) searches on citizens in the United States. As of this writing, the said amendment was due to be voted. More updates about this may be posted soon.
Thank you for visiting Philippine Newspaper!
