Victory! 702 has Expired!
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which authorizes warrantless collection of foreign communications and routinely captures Americans' messages, emails, and calls in the process, expired on June 12, 2026 after Congress failed to reach agreement on a longer reauthorization.
Why this matters: Section 702 was always sold as a foreign surveillance tool. In practice it collected enormous amounts of American communications without a warrant, and the government could search that pile for Americans by name. That lapse matters to ordinary people, not just activists. Congress had months to fix it and kept stalling. The expiration does not permanently kill the program — reauthorization fights will continue — but for now one of the broadest domestic surveillance dragnets in US law has no legal basis to operate.
Who should care: Privacy officers · Cybersecurity · General readers · Policy
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