Government Employs Backdoor Searches ACSB standards: Social and Ethical Issues, Technology in Society he Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducts foreign covert operations, counterintelligence operations, and collects and analyzes foreign intelligence for the president and his staff to aid in national ecurity decisions. The National Security Agency (NSA) is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The Federal sureau of Investigation ( FBI ) conducts domestic counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations in addition to its role as the lead law enforcement agency in the country. hese three agencies have implemented sophisticated programs to capture, store, and analyze electronic communications. The Downstream program (formerly called PRISM) extracts data from the ervers of nine major American Intemet companies including AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsof, Paltalk, Skype, Yahoo, and YouTube to obtain direct access to audio, video, photographs, emails, ocuments, and connection logs for each of these systems. The Upstream program taps into the infrastructure of the Internet to capture the online communications of foreigners outside the United States ulile their communications are in transit. The leaders of the intelligence agencies argue that these programs are essential to fighting terrorism. The agencies can also provide a dozen or more examples of ow use of the data gathered by these programs has thwarted the efforts of terrorists around the world. he programs are authorized by Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act which authorizes surveillance of any foreigner overgeas, provided the purpose is to obtain "foreign intelligence " The Act loosely efines "foreign intelligence" to mean any information that "relates to" the conduct of foreign affairs. This broad definition mears that the target being survelled need not be a terrorist. The target needs only be thought to have information that is relevant to the government's foreign intelligence objective-whatever that may be. he process of gathering foreign electronic communications necessarily means the incidental capture of many conversations involving an American (who may be here in the United States) and a foreign arget. They may well be having a totally innocent communication with a foreign triend, relative, or business partner who is not suspected of any wrongdoing whatsoever. The total number of Americans' ommunications "incidentally" collected since the inception of Section 702 is well into the millions. fection 702 also allows the government to pool all the messages it intercepts into a giant database and then search the database, including conversations involving Americans - without a warrant. Varrantless survelliance of communications between Americans and foreigners is known as a "backdoor search because it effectively evades other provisions of United States law that require an ndiv.

1. Government Employs Backdoor Searches ACSB standards: Social and Ethical Issues,
Technology in Society he Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducts foreign covert operations,
counterintelligence operations, and collects and analyzes foreign intelligence for the president
and his staff to aid in national ecurity decisions. The National Security Agency (NSA) is
responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information for foreign
intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The Federal sureau of Investigation ( FBI )
conducts domestic counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations in addition to its role as
the lead law enforcement agency in the country. hese three agencies have implemented
sophisticated programs to capture, store, and analyze electronic communications. The
Downstream program (formerly called PRISM) extracts data from the ervers of nine major
American Intemet companies including AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsof, Paltalk,
Skype, Yahoo, and YouTube to obtain direct access to audio, video, photographs, emails,
ocuments, and connection logs for each of these systems. The Upstream program taps into the
infrastructure of the Internet to capture the online communications of foreigners outside the
United States ulile their communications are in transit. The leaders of the intelligence agencies
argue that these programs are essential to fighting terrorism. The agencies can also provide a
dozen or more examples of ow use of the data gathered by these programs has thwarted the
efforts of terrorists around the world. he programs are authorized by Section 702 of the FISA
Amendments Act which authorizes surveillance of any foreigner overgeas, provided the purpose
is to obtain "foreign intelligence " The Act loosely efines "foreign intelligence" to mean any
information that "relates to" the conduct of foreign affairs. This broad definition mears that the
target being survelled need not be a terrorist. The target needs only be thought to have
information that is relevant to the government's foreign intelligence objective-whatever that may
be. he process of gathering foreign electronic communications necessarily means the incidental
capture of many conversations involving an American (who may be here in the United States)
and a foreign arget. They may well be having a totally innocent communication with a foreign
triend, relative, or business partner who is not suspected of any wrongdoing whatsoever. The
total number of Americans' ommunications "incidentally" collected since the inception of
Section 702 is well into the millions. fection 702 also allows the government to pool all the
messages it intercepts into a giant database and then search the database, including conversations
involving Americans - without a warrant. Varrantless survelliance of communications between
Americans and foreigners is known as a "backdoor search because it effectively evades other
provisions of United States law that require an ndividualized warrant or court order for access to
such data. The agencies are authorized to conduct unlimited warrantless backdoor searches of
those communications for information about Americans or ndividuals located in the United
States during any investigation. The agencies are only required to obtain a warrant to view
American's data if the investigation is not related to national security. here is a rigorous process
that law enforcement agents must go through to wiretap a phone with three key requirements that
clearly distinguishes this method of gathering data from Downstream and Ipstream. First, before
beginning the wiretap. agents must prove to a judge that they have probable cause to believe that
tapping a specific phone will help them solve serious federal crimes such as errorism, money
laundering, or drug tratficking Second. a time limit must be defined for the wiretapping to start
and end: it cannot go on forever. Third, the wiretapping is limited only to those conversations nat
are likely to yield evidence against the suspect. There are also major differences between the way
Downstream and Upstream programs collect data and the way data is gathered under an ordinary
search warrant. Downstream and Upstream gather all he data there is to be collected and create a

2. source of data that can be querled to find evidence of a crime. If a police department obtains a
search warrant to search a house for illegal drugs, agents can communications "incidentally"
collected since the inception of Section 702 is well into the millions. Section 702 also allows the
govemment to pool all the messages it intercepts into a giant database and then search the
database, including conversations involving Americans - without a warrant. Warrantless
survelllance of communications between Americans and foreigners is known as a "backdoor
search" because it effectively evades other provisions of United States law that require an
individualized warrant or court order for access to such data. The agencies are authorized to
conduct unlimited warrantless backdoor searches of those communications for information about
Americans or individuals located in the United States during any investigation. The agencies are
only required to obtain a warrant to view American's data if the investigation is not related to
national security. There is a rigorous process that law enforcement agents must go through to
wiretap a phone with three key requirements that clearly distinguishes this method of gathering
data from Downstream and Upstream. First, before beginning the wiretap, agents must prove to a
judge that they have probable cause to believe that tapping a specific phone will help them solve
serious federal crimes such as There are also major differences between the way Downstream
and Upstream programs collect data and the way data is gathered under an ordinary search
warrant. Downstream and Upstream gather all the data there is to be collected and create a
source of data that can be queried to find evidence of a crime. If a police department obtains a
search warrant to search a house for illegal drugs, agents can lowtully enter the house and search
every room. But after finding (or failing to find) the drugs, they cannot then go rummaging
through file cabinets for evidence of sex-traflicking and then seize computers to search for
evidence of tax evasion, even though the officers are lawfully present in the house. They must
get a separate warrant to conduct each search in advance of any search. Critical Thinking
Questions 1. Many people believe that the lack of evidence that an American is engaged in
wrongdoing is hardly a compeling justification for a warrantless search of his or her
communications. To the contrary: if the intelligence agencies do not have probable cause to
suspect criminal activity, they have no business reading Americans' emails and listening to their
phone calls. Imagine that you agree with this position, what changes do you feel are needed to
FISA Section 702? 2. Others believe that our intelligence agencies should capture all the data
possible to protect us from terrorists and if, while doing this, a source of data is created that can
be used in criminal cases, so much the better. Imagine that you agree with this position, what
changes do you feel are needed to FISA Section 702 ? 3. Do you believe that the Downstream
and Upstream programs are examples of tipping the scales of justice in favor of security over
privacy? Justify your answer. Sources: "Survelllance Techniques: How Your Data Becomes Our
Data, "Domestic Survelllance Directorate, https. //nsa gov1 info/ surveillance, accessed August
10. 2018; "NSA Stops Certain Section 702: Upstream Activities," "NSA Statement, April 28,
2017, https:/lwww nsa. govinews-reatures/press-room/statements/2017-04-28-702-statement.
shtml; "Upstream vs. PRISM," Electronic Frontier Foundation, Greene, "Americans Wanted
More Privacy, Protections Const 10, 2018: "Backdoor Search." Electronic Frontier Foundation,
https://www. eff.org/pages/ backdoor-search, accessed August 10, 2018. Robyn Greene,
"Americans Wanted More Privacy Protections. Congress Gave Them Fewer". New America,
January 26, 2018, https :/www newamerica org/ot//articles/ americans-wanted-more-
privacyprotections-congress-gave-them-fewer, Laura Hautala, "NSA Surveillance Programs Live
On, In Case You Hadn't Noticed, cinet, January 19, 2018, hittps: I/mww.cnet
com/news/nsasurvelilance-programsprism-upstream-live-on-snowden; and "Guide to Section

3. 702 Value Examples October 2017, htips:/www.dnigovifiles/ icotr/Guide-to-Section-702-Value-
Examples.pdr.