Using a VPN may expose you to NSA spying

Six Democratic lawmakers They pressure the nation’s top intelligence official to publicly reveal whether or not Americans are using the commercials VPN services They risk being treated as aliens under the US Surveillance Act, a designation that would deny them constitutional protections against warrantless government spying.

In a letter he sent Thursday to the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi GabbardLawmakers say that because VPNs obscure a user’s true location, and because intelligence agencies assume that anonymous communications are foreign, Americans may be inadvertently giving up the privacy protections they are entitled to under the law.

Several federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), have done so. Recommended Which consumers use virtual private networks (VPNs) for Protect their privacy. But following this advice may inadvertently cost Americans the very protection they are looking for.

The letter was signed by members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party: Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, and Alex Padilla, along with Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Sarah Jacobs.

This concern is especially true for Americans who connect to VPN servers located in other countries, something millions of users routinely do, whether to access region-restricted content like sports broadcasts abroad, or simply because their VPN app chose a foreign server by default. When they do this, it can become difficult to distinguish their Internet traffic from that of foreigners.

Under a controversial warrantless surveillance program, the US government intercepts massive amounts of electronic communications from people abroad. The program also collects vast amounts of Americans’ private messages, which the FBI may search without a warrant, even though it is authorized to target only foreigners abroad.

Program, authorized under Article 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act It is scheduled to expire next month And it became The subject of a fierce battle in Congress On whether it should be renewed without major reforms to protect Americans’ privacy.

Thursday’s letter cites declassified intelligence community guidance that creates a default at the heart of lawmakers’ concerns: under NSA instructions Targeting proceduresA person whose whereabouts are unknown is presumed to be a non-U.S. person unless there is specific information indicating otherwise. Ministry of Defense procedures Control the intelligence of signals Activities contain the same assumption.

Commercial VPN services work by routing a user’s Internet traffic through servers operated by the VPN company, which may be located anywhere in the world. A single server may carry traffic from thousands of users simultaneously, all of which appear to originate from the same IP address. For an intelligence agency that collects communications in bulk, an American citizen connected to a VPN server in Amsterdam, for example, looks no different than a Dutch citizen.

The letter does not confirm that Americans’ VPN traffic has been collected under these authorities — that information would be classified — but it does ask Gabbard to explain what impact, if any, VPN use will have on Americans’ privacy rights.

Among those pressing this question is Wyden, who as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee has access to classified details about how these surveillance programs work and has classified information about how these surveillance programs work. Well documented history Using carefully worded public statements to draw attention to surveillance practices that he cannot discuss publicly.

The letter also raises concerns about a second, broader surveillance authority: Executive Order No. 12333It is a Reagan-era directive that governs much of the intelligence community’s foreign surveillance operations, and allows the collection of large amounts of alien communications with even fewer restrictions than Section 702.

While 702 is a law subject to congressional oversight and requires approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, surveillance under Executive Order 12333 operates under approved guidelines. By the US Attorney alone.