US Lawmakers Want to Use a Powerful Spy Tool on Immigrants and Their Families

US Lawmakers Want to Use a Powerful Spy Tool on Immigrants and Their Families
Short Title	US Lawmakers Want to Use a Powerful Spy Tool on Immigrants and Their Families
Location	United States
Date	December 2023
Solove Harm	Surveillance, Identification, Secondary Use, Aggregation
Information	Communication, Travel History, Facial Images
Threat Actors	US government
Individuals
Affected	Travelers, Immigrants
High Risk Groups	Immigrants, Travelers
Tangible Harms	Deportation, Criminal Charges, Discrimination, Loss of Trust, Loss of Privacy

Congress is growing its support for using the Section 702 surveillance program to intensify vetting procedures for immigrants and foreign visitors to the U.S., equating their scrutiny levels to those of "suspected terrorists and spies".

Description

Lawmakers in the U.S. want to use a big spy tool to check on immigrants and their families more closely. A WIRED article talks about using a law called Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Section 702, to watch what these people do and listen to their calls and messages. This could mean a lot of surveillance, with the government keeping an eye on where people go online and who they talk to.

When the government collects all this information, it can put together a lot of details about someone's life, a process called aggregation. They can figure out who you are, where you live, and other private things, which is called identification. The worry is that the government might use this personal information for other things, not just for checking on safety. This is what's called Secondary Use. For example, they might use someone's personal info to find out about their money or family, which can be scary for the people being watched.