The John Oliver – Snowden report to keep in mind during the Apple vs FBI case

Marcy Wheeler explained what the focus of the interview should have been. Not so much about personal intimate photos, but more about “tangible things” (my interpretation of their idea of tangible things is, whatever they want it to mean).

What Snowden revealed was more about how the NSA uses §702 and E.O. 12333 to gather info, what he couldn’t reveal as much, was how the FBI and other US gov agencies can use §215 of the Patriot Act to gather info on common everyday American citizens.

I’ve said it before, my argument against all the info gathering isn’t so much that they have this info now, it’s more that there could be a hypothetical situation in the future where you made a donation, or made a comment in support, or in opposition to something controversial or politically incorrect and that action could be used against you in some way.

Please, don’t get too pedantic about the words “dick pic”, it’s just an example

Yes, Section 215 Might Be Used to Get Dick Pics — or Porn Searches and Dick Uploads

Published April 6, 2015 | By emptywheel

John Oliver did an interview with Edward Snowden that aired on his show last night. After showing Snowden that most random people stopped in Times Square didn’t know or care what Snowden had done (starting at 22:30), Oliver then showed that they would care if this were all about the government collecting dick pics.

[…]

It is, hypothetically, possible that the government (more likely FBI than NSA) could use Section 215 to get dick pics, provided there were some entity that had a collection of dick pics it was interested in. It would only 1) need to find that entity that had these dick pics as records, 2) come up with some reason why they needed the dick pics for either a counterterrorism or counterintelligence purpose, and 3) convince the rubber stamp FISA Court that these dick pics were “relevant to” a counterterrorism or counterintelligence FBI investigation (which we know FISC interprets unbelievably broadly) but that FBI wasn’t seeking the dick pics solely on the basis of the target’s First Amendment protected, um, speech. Hypothetically possible, at least, if unlikely. A dick pic is a tangible thing.

Furthermore, it is almost certain that the FBI (again, not the NSA, but if the FBI does it, it is more likely targeted at an American) is using Section 215 to get URL searches and data flows — along with fairly comprehensive online profiles — on users. …

[…]

Again, Section 215 is far more than the phone dragnet, it is designed to support fairly creative collection of “tangible things” so long as there is an attenuated national security purpose to do so, and we know it supports a great deal of collection on users’ Internet use.

[…]

https://www.emptywheel.net/2015/04/06/yes-section-215-might-be-used-to-get-dick-pics-or-porn-searches-and-dick-uploads/

 

 

 

 

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