Oregon U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has voiced citizen safety concerns over the federal legislator’s passing of a new surveillance bill Friday.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act re-authorizes federal surveillance for the next two years. It gives the government access to internet and cell phone data without the need of a warrant in order to help find foreign threats to the country.
Senator Wyden, who is a member of the federal Intelligence Committee, says he is concerned with how the bill will be put into effect.
“What we have seen is increasingly because communications systems are integrated,” Sen. Wyden said. “We have a lot of law abiding Americans swept up in those searches and I wanted to make sure that there are additional protections to deal with the law abiding citizens of Oregon and the country.”
Sen. Wyden says he proposed an amendment for the bill aimed at reducing the invasiveness of this type of security surveillance. That amendment was not approved before the bill was passed.
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