Friend,

Congress is hurrying to advance must-pass defense legislation before heading home for the holidays, and people across the country just might receive a horrendous present from our government: massively expanded domestic surveillance.

We’ve long been horrified at how government agencies seek out and exploit loopholes to secretly monitor people, but the findings from a new congressional inquiry are truly shudder-inducing: The nation’s largest pharmacy chains have been handing over our sensitive health data to law enforcement without a second thought. In an era where radical state governments are aggressively targeting and restricting both reproductive care and gender-affirming care, these kinds of privacy violations are more dangerous than ever.

Please join us in demanding that Congress protect our civil liberties: Will you add your name to our letter calling on legislators to rein in domestic surveillance instead of expanding it?

Thanks for speaking up,

All of us at Free Press Action

P.S. Our colleague Jenna just put out a new Op-Ed contrasting the various surveillance bills that are currently up for debate in Congress.

Friend,

This is really scary: A recent congressional inquiry found that our nation’s domestic-surveillance regime has acquired our medical data — including information about birth control, mental health and sensitive medical conditions — from leading pharmacy chains.¹ This is an unthinkable invasion of privacy in a time when millions of people are living in states without any reproductive protections.

Last month, we asked for your help in opposing an extension of one of the foundations of warrantless government spying: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). This law enables law enforcement and intelligence agencies like the FBI and NSA to search through data about us without any public or judicial oversight. Unfortunately, right now Congress is considering including an expansion of Section 702 in this year’s “must-pass” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Enough already: Tell lawmakers to put the brakes on domestic spying.

Expanding Section 702 would result in the broadest abuses of backdoor domestic spying loopholes in recent memory, on the scale of hundreds of thousands of warrantless searches of Americans’ medical data, calls, texts, emails, locations and internet activity.

However, there is still hope for serious reform thanks to two bills that have overwhelming bipartisan support. We’re urging Congress to bring the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act or the Government Surveillance Reform Act² to the floor to preserve our fundamental privacy rights — rather than using the NDAA to reauthorize Section 702 and expand warrantless spying.

It seems obvious that Congress should choose the bipartisan path that would protect our civil liberties instead of further violating them — and yet there’s a grave risk that lawmakers (once again) will make the wrong choice. Add your name to our petition to demand that our elected officials safeguard our privacy.

Thank you for your advocacy,

Jenna and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net

1. “Pharmacies Share Medical Data With Police Without a Warrant, Inquiry Finds,” The Washington Post, Dec. 12, 2023

2. “Congress: Do the Right Thing on Surveillance Oversight,” Tech Policy Press, Dec. 12, 2023