Sen. Wyden’s Floor Speech on “Everyone’s a Spy” Provision Is Both Dystopian and Realistic

Is it fair to call one amendment to the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA) the “Everyone’s a Spy” provision? This amendment to RISAA now before the Senate would compel a provider of any service, who has “access” to communications equipment, to quietly cooperate with the NSA in collecting messages.
 
Because the people who work at most ordinary businesses – from fitness centers to commercial office buildings – have no expertise in parsing data, they would likely just hand over all the messages of their customers to the NSA, including countless messages between Americans.
 
Here’s how Sen. Ron Wyden characterized this measure on the Senate floor:
 
“After all, every office building in America has data cables running through it. These people are not just the engineers who install, maintain, and repair our communications infrastructure; there are countless others who could be forced to help the government spy, including those who clean offices and guard buildings. If this provision is enacted, the government could deputize any one of these people against their will and force them to become an agent for Big Brother. 
 
“For example, by forcing an employee to insert a USB thumb drive into a server at an office they clean or guard at night.
 
“This could all happen without any oversight. The FISA Court won’t know about it. Congress won’t know about it. The Americans who are handed these directives will be forbidden from talking about it. And unless they can afford high priced lawyers with security clearances who know their way around the FISA Court, they will have no recourse at all.”
 
Sen. Wyden is not writing science-fiction. We’ve seen again and again when the FBI and other federal agencies can find a way to expand a loophole – as with backdoor searches of Section 702 data or the data broker loophole – they will do so.