In 2016 and again in 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) proposed legislation that would empower the U.S. executive branch to enter bilateral surveillance agreements with foreign nations. Under these agreements, police in both nations would have the reciprocal power to bypass [Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties]—and each other’s privacy laws—and instead make direct demands to service providers for data located in the other nation.
EFF and a coalition of 20 other privacy advocates sent a letter to Congress opposing this DOJ bill. The other signatories are Access Now, Advocacy for Principled Action in Government, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Center for Media and Democracy, the Constitutional Alliance, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Defending Rights & Dissent, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, the Government Accountability Project, Government Information Watch, Human Rights Watch, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Security Counselors, New America’s Open Technology Institute, the Project on Government Oversight, and Restore the Fourth.