Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability (PPSA)
  • Issues
  • Solutions
  • SCORECARD
    • Congressional Scorecard Rubric
  • News
  • About
  • TAKE ACTION
    • Section 702 Reform
    • PRESS Act
    • DONATE
  • Issues
  • Solutions
  • SCORECARD
    • Congressional Scorecard Rubric
  • News
  • About
  • TAKE ACTION
    • Section 702 Reform
    • PRESS Act
    • DONATE

 NEWS & UPDATES

PPSA Commends ACLU Action on New FBI Cellphone Surveillance Unit

12/28/2020

 
fbi-surveillance-cellphone-PPSA
Credit: https://www.eff.org/
The FBI has long sought to get around the encryption of data in our personal digital devices. It has tried, and often failed, to coerce Apple and other companies to give it a backdoor into our devices. As the ACLU notes, “between our emails, text messages, location information, social media activity, and more, our cellphones hold almost our entire lives.”
 
That is why the ACLU was more than a little alarmed to learn of the FBI’s Electronic Device Analysis Unit (EDAU), an in-house team capable of breaking into our personal devices. ACLU reports it has discovered public records that indicate that EDAU appears able to access encrypted information from a locked iPhone.
 
Concerned, the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking records about EDAU and its activities. What it received in response was a “Glomar” response – which refuses to confirm or deny the existence of any such records.
 
This is peculiar. After all, ACLU learned of EDAU through public documents. So such documents are known to exist. The FBI has no basis to deny ACLU’s request.
 
The ACLU then took the next logical step. Yesterday, it asked a federal court to intervene and order DOJ and the FBI to turn over all responsive documents relating to the EDAU.
 
ACLU said: “We’re demanding the government release records concerning any policies applicable to the EDAU, its technological capability to unlock or access electronic devices, and its requests for, purchase of, or uses of software that could enable it to bypass encryption.”
 
The FBI might claim authority to surveil cellphone data with probable cause warrants as required by the Constitution. If that’s the case, then, why the secrecy? There is no reason for the FBI to withhold information about the scope and duties of this new unit.

Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    2022 Year In Review
    2023 Year In Review
    2024 Year In Review
    Analysis
    Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    Call To Action
    Congress
    Congressional Hearings
    Congressional Unmasking
    Court Appeals
    Court Hearings
    Court Rulings
    Digital Privacy
    Domestic Surveillance
    Facial Recognition
    FISA
    FISA Reform
    FOIA Requests
    Foreign Surveillance
    Fourth Amendment
    Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
    Government Surveillance
    Government Surveillance Reform Act (GSRA)
    Insights
    In The Media
    Lawsuits
    Legal
    Legislation
    Letters To Congress
    NDO Fairness Act
    News
    Opinion
    Podcast
    PPSA Amicus Briefs
    Private Data Brokers
    Protect Liberty Act (PLEWSA)
    Saving Privacy Act
    SCOTUS
    SCOTUS Rulings
    Section 702
    Spyware
    Stingrays
    Surveillance Issues
    Surveillance Technology
    The GSRA
    The SAFE Act
    Warrantless Searches
    Watching The Watchers

    RSS Feed

FOLLOW PPSA: 
© COPYRIGHT 2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. | PRIVACY STATEMENT
Photo from coffee-rank