Overseas Surveillance in an Interconnected World

Despite the success of last year’s surveillance reform legislation (the “USA FREEDOM Act”), the U.S. retains the ability to collect millions of Americans’ phone calls and e-mails without a warrant—and without any oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court—under Executive Order 12333 (EO 12333). The order underlies the intelligence community’s most expansive surveillance authorities. It generally governs the interception of electronic communications overseas, but as a Brennan Center report shows, its broad scope has significant implications for Americans.

 

Just Security, the Brennan Center for Justice, and a panel of leading experts discussed a range of issues about the questions surrounding EO 12333 surveillance. 

Panelists included Neema Singh Guliani Legislative Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union; Deborah Pearlman, Associate Professor, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Rebecca Richards, Director, Office of Civil Liberties and Privacy, National Security Agency; Ames Toh, Legal Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression; former Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice; and Harlan Yu, Principal, Upturn.