At least 50 nations around the globe have enacted privacy statutes in order to safeguard their citizens’ personal information as they surf the Internet. US companies involved with ecommerce need to familiarize themselves with the laws of the jurisdictions in which they will be doing business. Each jurisdiction has its own unique privacy laws, which vary in depth and breadth. Research in the US on this topic is in need of interpretation and further investigation, so would benefit from inclusion in international relationships at the global and global economic level. One of the lesser known statutes out there is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The question is, what is FISA?
Prior to 9/11, the US used a foreign intelligence surveillance program (FISA) to obtain records and surveillance of phone calls and internet communications, known as PRISM. According to official American government documents obtained by American journalist James Risen, the Justice Department and the CIA were the “laboratories” of the surveillance program. However, both the CIA and the Justice Department have argued that they were just third parties on the content of the communications. The Center for National Security Studies in Washington has come to the conclusion that it is clear that the ruling makes a finding that the government intelligence programs (FISA and PRISM) of Prism and XKeyscore have violated US Constitutional law. As a result, the [FISA Amendments Act] also requires the Executive branch to produce a comprehensive implementation plan for each and every aspect of the communications surveillance programs as well as include the lawfulness of each program as well as the limits of each program.
Does this mean that American spies in any country are using secret programming techniques on foreign telecommunications devices and communication networks? No, it does not. After the article was published, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in Washington released a statement claiming that no US official had ever personally accessed data within the Prism and XKeyscore programs. However, this statement rests upon the flawed assumption that US citizens are not spied upon or subject to any other forms of surveillance. US intelligence agencies are not constrained to the strict limits stated in FISA that only US persons are covered. Among the reasons listed for its lax standards for the PRISM program are that it is not a standard reporting requirement as it doesn’t even require the periodic reporting of and periodic update on government accesses to information. Instead, the ODNI has defended the program by insisting that the program is necessary to protect US persons against terrorists, foreign powers, and other hostile actors.
With little human oversight, information can be extracted from the top-secret databases and American spy agencies gain the power to spy on communications which do not pertain to US persons. This means that law enforcement officers of any country can spy on Americans as easily as those within the US or that an average citizen in another country can remotely monitor and use such spying abilities to spy on US citizens. The most basic method used to obtain data from overseas telecommunications companies is what is referred to as SIGNIT (Signals Intelligence – Technical collection) or the so-called Internet intercept. This involves, for example, the interception of and the unencrypted interception of telephone and internet traffic passing through networks at the various US Internet backbone providers (such as Verizon and AT&T).
The NSA also uses voice interception on surveillance targets in foreign countries (internet interception, telephone interception, and non-electronic interception) through various programs such as FAIRVIEW (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Review) and XKeyscore (content exploitation). Prior to 1999, the NSA was exclusively employed for eavesdropping on international communications using a variation of the LEO-KINT classification system based on the method of employing highly specialized analytical processing devices. In addition, the NSA employs a plethora of digital instruments for storing, analyzing, targeting and decrypting information on individuals as well as on telecommunications devices. In fact, XKeyscore is one of the most advanced systems used to collect and decipher digital information of a global scope. Aaron Kelly Lawyer