Project for Privacy & Surveillance Accountability

“It’s Getting Harder to Square the Emerging Surveillance State with the Declaration of Independence”

Historically, attempts to install guardrails to curb FISA Section 702 abuses have failed, but debates over the SAVE Act have increased the complexity of efforts to enact meaningful surveillance reform. prospect.org/2026/03/23/spy…

@RiceUniversity 4/ The complete study was published in the journal Computer Communications. And none too soon, given that the market for biometric systems is expected to roughly double between now and 2030. protectprivacynow.org/news/how-to-hi…

@RiceUniversity 3/ Off-the-shelf devices can be used to eavesdrop on phone conversations, monitor movement patterns, and monitor subtler signals like breathing and heart rate to gauge your stress, activity, or emotional state. The benefits of biometric monitoring come with a privacy downside.

1/ @RiceUniversity researchers have worked out how to camouflage your heartbeats from unwanted surveillance with “biometric decoys.” Remote heart rate monitoring is just one of many threats to privacy emerging from the mushrooming field of biometric tracking.

5/ At the very least, protecting our biometric data – and blocking its sale to other businesses, as well as preventing it from being sold or given to government agencies – would be a reasonable guardrail for @nycgov and other municipalities to adopt. protectprivacynow.org/news/new-york-…

4/ Hanif’s legislation would stop businesses from selling, leasing, or trading biometric data for profit. It would also require written consent from customers who wish to share their data, including in stores where biometrics are accepted for payment.

1/ After the pandemic, retail theft became rampant in cities nationwide. This multibillion-dollar industry continues to eat away at profits, so it's understandable that businesses would want to turn to biometrics to spot serial offenders and block them before they enter a store.

@FBI @CatoInstitute @PGEddington @ATFHQ @DHSgov 5/ Section 702 has been too prone to scandalous violations of Americans’ rights to give it a green light with no reforms. For the sake of our First, Second, and Fourth Amendment rights, this surveillance authority must be open to debate and reforms. protectprivacynow.org/news/the-threa…

@FBI @CatoInstitute @PGEddington 4/ It takes little imagination to see how the FBI, @ATFHQ @DHSgov might do exactly what Congress forbids: create a registry of Americans who own firearms. Add artificial intelligence, and the creation of such a registry goes from possible to easy.

1/ FISA Section 702 was enacted to monitor foreign threats on foreign soil, but in practice has been used by @FBI to sweep up the communications of millions of Americans on American soil and to specifically surveil thousands of Americans – all without warrant.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus formally voted to oppose reauthorization of FISA Section 702, a powerful surveillance law meant to facilitate spying on foreigners abroad but which has been repeatedly abused to warrantlessly surveil Americans. thehill.com/homenews/house…

.@RepJayapal statement re: FISA Sec702 reauthorization sums up the need for surveillance reform. Unchecked domestic surveillance of Americans, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, cannot be allowed to continue. jayapal.house.gov/2026/03/19/jay…

Amid a scramble for a "clean" reauthorization of FISA Section 702, a law that has been repeatedly abused to warrantlessly spy on Americans, @RepJeffries states that Democrats are lining up against helping Republicans advance legislation to a final vote. thehill.com/homenews/house…

.@RepZoeLofgren introduces the Online Privacy Act to protect Americans' personal data, shifting "power back to the people and [ensuring] federal law finally catches up to the realities of the 21st century." lofgren.house.gov/media/press-re…

The border has become a staging ground for the debut of new surveillance technologies that potentially threaten civil liberties and human rights. @EFF Director of Investigations @maassive gives a tour of surveillance tech at the US-Mexico border. x.com/EFF/status/203…