In a letter sent Thursday to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the lawmakers say that because VPNs obscure a user’s true location, and because intelligence agencies presume that communications of unknown origin are foreign, Americans may be inadvertently waiving the privacy protections they’re entitled to under the law.
Several federal agencies, including the FBI, NSA, and FTC, have recommended that consumers use VPNs to protect their privacy. But following that advice may inadvertently cost Americans the very protections they’re seeking.
The letter was signed by members of the Democratic Party’s progressive flank: Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, and Alex Padilla, along with Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Sara Jacobs.
As if they weren’t already scooping up people’s information already. The point of VPN and other defenses is just to make investigation too expensive to do as a free action.
No.
Stop fearbaiting.
I hate the way this is getting it twisted.
Just because your signal is misinterpreted does not mean you’ve waived your rights. It means their system and it’s use of citizen’s data is flawed and violates the law.
I thought the law said that inadvertent collection has to be deleted asap not that you forfeited your rights.
Right? The real irony is that those who are paid to enforce the law, and who’re sworn to uphold it, feel they’re above it - beyond reproach.
The system is sick with apathy and outright corruption.
We must save ourselves
I hope they enjoy Farscape, because that’s what they’re getting of they eavesdrop me.
“Do I hear chanting and laser gun sounds?”
- Some NSA agent, probably
Who doesn’t love Farscape?
Some fans of Lexx.
Bro these last two years I’ve been put on every list. It’s way too late for any of this.
Ooh ooh, I know how to get on a list!
Ahem
Luigi did nothing wrong
Luigi did nothing wrong…
…also I am Spartacus
The entirety of this has made me furious so I’m leaving a comment to remember to come back and soapbox in a bit.
Lemmy, where the ND people are aware enough to know that by nature they get impulsively angry and need to cool off. I am not good at it.
I can’t tell which, if any, of these are what “ND” is supposed to mean here.
So, uh, “ND”?
My guess is “neurodivergent” which, interestingly, doesn’t seem to be on that list.
Neurodivergent?
Sorry. That wasn’t the list.
He probably means Neuro Divergent
https://www.scribd.com/document/1017859680/Congressional-VPN-Letter-to-Dni
And the letter (because these asshats make these things difficult to find)
Americans may be inadvertently waiving the privacy protections they’re entitled to under the law.
lmao
Yeah. That really jumped out at me. My very first thought was “Americans have privacy protections?” Since Roe v Wade was overturned, Americans have basically no right to privacy.
Anyone who REALLY wants to see what porn you watch and other info will bypass your silly VPN like its nothing. VPN only really helps when your ISP monitors your every KB and legitimately sends you threatening letter to stop torrenting that weird porn.
I’m curious how this works in action. If you use a VPN provider that doesn’t do logging, and inherently you’re traffic is encrypted via that VPN, what are they spying on? That’s kind of the whole purpose of running a VPN in the first place.
If they happen to somehow see the unencrypted traffic, I hope they enjoy sifting through ass loads of torrent data. Good luck, shit bags.
It’s not so much spying as moving you to the front of the line for suspicious persons.
I hope I’m on that list already, I’m a waste of their time
I hope I’m there already. If I’m not then I’m not being vocal enough about how much I despise the current US government
Did they stop spying on americans. Im pretty sure snowden is still living in russia.
America should have took him seriously.
I really think there’s no worth in the average American people anymore.
I took him seriously. I was a teenager when Snowden leaked those documents, and I took it seriously.
Why do you think I’m here today?
Yeah it was pretty big. So much of modern times it just boggles my mind for anyone who grew up in the 80’s. We are literally how we portrayed russia or what we would become like if we let communism win. A whistle blower had to flee to russia. 100% bin laden won. Half my life has been in this millenium and there is a stark difference before and after (even with there being plenty which headed us in this direction).
They will waste waaaaaaaaaay too much time chasing ghosts for this to make sense.
…Americans may be inadvertently waiving the privacy protections they’re entitled to under the law.
We have no protections and no privacy, laws or no.
So in the US, locking your metaphorical doors or windows, or closing your digital curtains, means that authorities can presume you are hiding something and your 4th Amendments rights cease to be valid.
All while abusing Third Party Doctrine to buy your data from advertisers and Palantir anyway.
If a VPN routing of someone in Chicago is via Texas and California, what judge would see that as “foreign”? Oh, right, one of their idiot ones they like to give cases like this.
“Mighty suspicious of you to protect yourself from our abuse. You must be up to no good.”
Old news… If you are using a VPN, it’s “foreign communications” and subject to spying; and if you aren’t using a VPN, they route the data through a room that’s considered a foreign enclave (like an embassy), turning it into “foreign communications” and subject to spying.
