Congressional offices leading efforts to reauthorize and reform Section 702 of the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 joined a staff-only panel discussion hosted by the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Section 702 is the controversial authority under which the government acquires hundreds of millions of communications annually. It expired at the end of 2017 and was re-authorized by Congress at the beginning of 2018.

PANELISTS INCLUDED:

• Nima Binara, Counsel for Sen. Leahy, co-author the Senate version of the USA Liberty Act
• Patrick Day, Counsel for Sen. Feinstein, who offered an amendment at a SCCI markup to close the backdoor search loophole
• Liza Goitein, Co-director Liberty and National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice
• Aaron Hiller, Chief Oversight Counsel for Rep. Conyers, co-author of the House version of the USA Liberty Act
• Christopher Soghoian, Congressional Innovation Fellow for Sen. Wyden, co-author of the USA Rights Act
• Moderator Neema Guliani,  ACLU Legislative Counsel

WHEN: Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017 at noon
WHERE: S-115, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC

The Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Media Justice, Free Press, and New America's Open Technology Institute co-hosted:

The Color of Surveillance: Disproportionate Impacts of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance

As Congress considered renewal of a powerful government surveillance authority, Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, this panel offered perspectives on the long-standing disproportionate impacts of foreign intelligence surveillance.

Some of the experts and advocates at the center of this discussion joined the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee for a conversation on how foreign intelligence surveillance intersects with race, class, and policy.

Archived video is available here, courtesy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

PANELISTS INCLUDED:

• Alvaro Bedoya, Executive Director, Center on Privacy & Technology, Georgetown Law Center
• Jake Laperruque, Senior Counsel, The Constitution Project
• Steven Renderos, Organizing Director, Center for Media Justice
• Sarah St. Vincent, Researcher, Human Rights Watch
• Xiaoxing Xi, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Physics, Temple University, and plaintiff alleging the government unjustly investigated and surveilled him
• Moderator: Rainey Reitman, Activism Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation

WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 28th, 2017 at 12:00 p.m.
WHERE: Rayburn HOB, Room 2226, Washington, DC

Companies' ability and responsibility to keep people's information private has massive consequences on individuals' privacy rights. As the kinds and volume of data they hold about us continue to grow so does the significance of their role as a steward of the public's information.

The Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee hosted a conversation with some of the companies and organizations at the center of this discussion, including Google, the i2Coalition, Mozilla, and Twilio.

What privacy issues do they see as most in need of Congressional attention? What vulnerabilities pose the greatest risks to the public? Topics covered included cross-border data sharing, encryption, ECPA, and Section 702.

PANELISTS INCLUDED:

• David Lieber, Senior Privacy Policy Counsel at Google
• Christian Dawson, Co-Founder and Executive Director at i2Coalition
• Heather West, Senior Policy Manager at Mozilla
• Richard Seiersen, Chief Information Security Officer at Twilio
• Moderator: Austin Carson, Executive Director, TechFreedom

WHEN: Tuesday, Sept. 19th, 2017 at 1:00 p.m.
WHERE: Rayburn HOB Room 2226, Washington, DC

What does it cost to enter the United States? For American citizens and immigrants alike, people are increasingly being asked to leave their right to privacy at home. From biometric scanning to detention, your rights function differently at borders and airports -- and that can change even more based on your race and nationality.
 
The Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee and the Niskanen Center hosted an expert panel discussion exploring the privacy costs of entering the United States. Representatives Farenthold and Polis also made remarks during the event.
 
PANELISTS INCLUDED:

• Kristie De Peña, counsel, Niskanen Center,
• Joshua Dratel, founder and president, Law Offices of Joshua L. Dratel, P.C.,
• Laura Moy, moderator, deputy director of the Center on Privacy & Technology, Georgetown University Law Center,
• Jumana Musa, senior privacy and national security counsel, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and
• Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project, National Lawyers Guild.

With remarks from Representatives Farenthold and Polis

WHEN: Wednesday, May 3rd at 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Rayburn HOB Room 2226

On April 26th, the Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee hosted a panel of experts to discuss Section 702, the controversial authority governing PRISM and Upstream surveillance that is set to expire at the end of 2017.

The event, in Rayburn HOB, was put on in concert with the Fourth Amendment Caucus. Caucus co-chair Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) joined to make statements, which can be viewed at 32:10 in the video below.

PANELISTS INCLUDED:

• Alex Abdo, senior staff attorney at Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University,
• Austin Carson, moderator, executive director for TechFreedom,
• Josh Withrow, director of public policy for Free the People, and
• Kate Tummarello, policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The Fourth Amendment Advisory Committee hosts these panels to bring experts to DC and in the interest of presenting Congressional staff with informative discussion.

We thank the panel and Representative Poe for joining us.

At The Usual Suspects: Bias in Government Surveillance, our expert panel discussed the profound impacts of the government's immense surveillance practices and the different ways it affects different people. The event took place on November 30th, 2016, in Rayburn HOB, room 2226.

PANELISTS INCLUDED:

• Alvaro Bedoya, moderator, executive director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law;
• Sakira Cook, counsel at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights;
• Chinyere´ Tutashinda, national organizer at the Center for Media Justice;
• Xiaoxing Xi, professor and former chairman of Temple University's Physics Department and an innocent target of government surveillance; and
• Harlan Yu, principal and technologist at Upturn.

If you don't have time to watch the whole panel, be sure to listen to Professor Xi's story — one of unjust prosecution, spying, and raids. The audio of Professor Xi's introduction is louder in this version, as well.