Stop Watching Us: CDT Joins Coalition Calling on Congress to Investigate NSA Mass Surveillance

CDT has joined a diverse, bipartisan coalition of organizations that has demanded immediate Congressional action in response to recently revealed NSA surveillance programs. From the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records to the massive spying on consumers’ personal online data, these previously secret but long suspected NSA programs are dangerously overreaching. Together with dozens of groups ranging from the Electronic Frontier Foundation to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, CDT is calling on Congress to investigate and rein in these practices.

The NSA’s programs are an affront to Americans’ constitutional rights and the human rights of those outside the United States who have been caught in the NSA’s net despite having no link to terrorism or espionage. To that end, and as the group letter delivered to Congress this morning demands:

We are calling on Congress to take immediate action to halt this surveillance and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s and the FBI’s data collection programs. We call on Congress to immediately and publicly:

1. Enact reform this Congress to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court;

2. Create a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying. This committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform to end unconstitutional surveillance;

3. Hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.

CDT is also supporting these goals as a part of StopWatching.Us, a global petition created with the help of Mozilla and calling upon Congress to expose and end the NSA’s mass surveillance. We urge all those concerned about governmental surveillance to visit the StopWatching.Us site and let Congress know that the NSA programs are incompatible with Americans constitutional rights and the human rights granted to all individuals.