Warrantless Surveillance under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act: Myths and Facts
On October 6, 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union issued a judgment invalidating the EU-US Safe Harbor Agreement, the legal basis upon which thousands of US companies had relied in order to transfer European users’ data to the United States for processing and/or storage. The CJEU took this action after concluding that the agreement failed to ensure that Europeans’ personal data would not be subject to excessive or otherwise abusive US surveillance practices, particularly those of the kind that occur under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008.
Section 702 surveillance activities include PRISM, through which the NSA compels US companies to turn over users’ communications without a warrant, and ‘upstream’ acquisition, through which the NSA seizes virtually all Internet-based communications flowing into or out of the United States and searches the content of those that are text-based (such as e-mails and instant messages).
Elements of the US government have long sought to portray Section 702 surveillance as limited and protective of privacy. This explainer by CDT and other civil society groups on the myths and realities of warrantless Section 702 surveillance sets the record straight about Section 702.
British Public Oppose Secret Surveillance Powers and Want Strong Protections for Encrypted Communications
CDT released nationally representative polling data revealing that a the British public are broadly concerned about the security, privacy, and free speech consequences of allowing law enforcement to access encrypted communications.
Responding to the EU-US Negotiations on Reciprocal Data Exchanges for Border Procedures
CDT Europe, together with 29 other civil society organisations and academics, sent an open joint letter to the Council of the EU regarding the worrying direction taken by the European Commission in the EU-US border negotiations with the U.S. government.
Open Joint Letter on a Public Reassessment of the EU-US Adequacy Decision
On 29 June, the US Supreme Court ruled that US President Trump can remove the leaders of independent agencies and commissions, overturning nearly 90 years of precedent limiting executive power. This decision raises serious questions about one of the key safeguards underpinning the EU-US Data Privacy Framework adopted in 2023: independent supervision.
Return of Mass Scanning of Private Communications through Undemocratic Procedure
CDT Europe responds to the European Parliament's vote to revive the interim derogation from the ePrivacy Directive, commonly known as “Chat Control 1.0”, which provides the legal basis for the voluntary, indiscriminate scanning of private communications for known and new Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), and for the solicitation of children.
