TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to support bipartisan legislation to protect your privacy.
Right now, government agencies are exploiting legal loopholes to secretly spy on hundreds of thousands of Americans without obtaining warrants – targeting people of color, protestors, and political activists in particular. [1]
John, you and I shouldn’t have to risk being exposed to secret government surveillance just for exercising our rights to free speech and protest. The health of our democracy depends on these fundamental rights being respected.
That’s why Common Cause is championing the bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act, which would close this loophole and protect Americans from government surveillance and racial profiling. But right now, government agencies are doing everything they can to prevent this reform – so we must act NOW if we want to pass it.
Take Action: Send a quick email to your members of Congress today urging them to support the Government Surveillance Reform Act.
John, let’s be clear: this surveillance should never have been allowed in the first place.
Law enforcement agencies have gotten away with violating our privacy by exploiting a loophole in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – which as the name implies, was passed to allow government agencies to investigate foreign terrorist threats, NOT spy on Americans!
They’ve abused this loophole to secretly access our personal communications, real-time location information, internet activity, and more – all without warrants or ANY oversight! They have used this to gather information on religion, sexual orientation, health, and political affiliations – opening the door to discriminatory surveillance based on personal information. [2]
This authority expires at the end of the year, and we must ensure Congress does not reinstate it without passing meaningful reform. The Government Surveillance Reform Act would help stop these abuses by closing loopholes and protecting our right to freedom of speech without persecution. That’s why it has been championed by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle as a commonsense solution to these privacy issues.
If you agree our government agencies must STOP spying on Americans and invading our privacy, send an email to your members of Congress today >>
I hope I can count on you to speak up today, John. The health of our democracy depends on it.
Thanks for all you do,
Raelyn Roberson, Media & Democracy Campaigner
and the team at Common Cause
[1] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/fisa-section-702-civil-rights-abuses
[2] https://epic.org/odni-report-on-intelligence-agencies-data-purchases-underscores-urgency-of-reform/
