Warrantless-Surveillance

Flock Safety Admits Federal Immigration Agents Have Direct Access to Tracking Data, Pauses Pilot

| Importance: 9/10

Flock Safety publicly admits that federal immigration agents have had direct access to automated license plate reader data through a previously undisclosed pilot program with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), giving federal authorities access to more …

Flock Safety ICE Customs and Border Protection U.S. Department of Homeland Security surveillance ALPR immigration-enforcement ICE warrantless-surveillance +1 more
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Texas Sheriff Uses Flock Safety's 83,000 Camera Network to Track Woman Who Had Abortion

| Importance: 9/10

Electronic Frontier Foundation reveals that a Johnson County, Texas sheriff’s officer searched data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reader cameras across 6,809 different Flock Safety camera networks to track down a woman suspected of self-managing an abortion. The search spanned …

Johnson County Sheriff Adam King Flock Safety Electronic Frontier Foundation Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi Representative Robert Garcia surveillance ALPR abortion-surveillance reproductive-rights warrantless-surveillance +1 more
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Institute for Justice Files Lawsuit Challenging Flock Safety Mass Surveillance as Unconstitutional

| Importance: 8/10

The Institute for Justice files a federal lawsuit on behalf of Norfolk residents Lee Schmidt and Crystal Arrington, challenging the city’s deployment of 172 Flock Safety automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras as an unconstitutional violation of the Fourth Amendment’s …

Institute for Justice Lee Schmidt Crystal Arrington Norfolk Police Department Flock Safety surveillance ALPR Fourth-Amendment civil-liberties warrantless-surveillance +1 more
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Flock Safety Network Expands to 5,000+ Police Departments Performing 20 Billion Monthly Vehicle Scans

| Importance: 9/10

Flock Safety’s automated license plate recognition network reaches unprecedented scale, with more than 5,000 law enforcement departments across the United States using interconnected cameras that perform over 20 billion scans of vehicles every month. The company now operates in more than 5,000 …

Flock Safety Garrett Langley ACLU Electronic Frontier Foundation surveillance ALPR mass-surveillance license-plate-readers warrantless-surveillance +1 more
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Ring admits providing police with warrantless access to user footage 11 times in 2022

| Importance: 9/10

In response to questions from Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Amazon vice president Brian Huseman disclosed in a July 1 letter that Ring had provided police with user camera footage on 11 occasions during 2022 without obtaining user consent or court warrants. Amazon justified these warrantless …

Ring Amazon Brian Huseman Ed Markey ring warrantless-surveillance police-access fourth-amendment amazon +2 more
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Ring announces partnerships with 400+ police departments, building massive surveillance network

| Importance: 8/10

Ring announced it had established partnerships with more than 400 police departments across the United States, marking the first time the company publicly disclosed the scale of its law enforcement surveillance network. The announcement revealed that since Amazon’s 2018 acquisition, Ring had …

Ring Amazon ring police-partnerships surveillance law-enforcement amazon +2 more
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FISA Court Finds NSA Surveillance Programs Systematically Unconstitutional

| Importance: 9/10

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issues classified ruling finding NSA’s warrantless surveillance programs violated the Fourth Amendment and FISA statute on a systematic basis. The court documented that intelligence agencies had misled judges about the scope and nature of surveillance …

FISA Court NSA Department of Justice Michael Hayden Keith Alexander +1 more fisa-court-ruling constitutional-violation nsa-surveillance warrantless-surveillance fourth-amendment
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FISA Amendments Act of 2008 Passes, Granting Telecom Immunity

| Importance: 9/10

Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, fundamentally expanding the president’s warrantless surveillance authority while granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the NSA’s illegal domestic wiretapping program since 2001. The Senate voted …

U.S. Congress George W. Bush Senate House of Representatives Telecommunications Companies +2 more fisa-amendments telecom-immunity warrantless-surveillance congressional-legislation section-702 +2 more
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FISA Court Judge Rejects NSA Warrantless Surveillance Expansion

| Importance: 8/10

FISA Court Judge Roger Vinson delivered a significant rebuke to the Bush administration by rejecting the government’s attempt to rewrite FISA statutes to permit expanded warrantless surveillance inside the United States. The government sought to stretch FISA’s definition of a …

Roger Vinson FISA Court NSA Bush Administration Department of Justice fisa-court judicial-rebuke warrantless-surveillance fourth-amendment constitutional-law +1 more
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New York Times Exposes NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program

| Importance: 10/10

James Risen and Eric Lichtblau published a groundbreaking front-page New York Times article revealing the NSA had been conducting warrantless surveillance of Americans since 2001 under President Bush’s secret authorization. The story exposed that the NSA, traditionally focused on foreign …

James Risen Eric Lichtblau New York Times George W. Bush NSA pulitzer-prize whistleblowing fisa-bypass journalism stellarwind +8 more
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NSA Whistleblower Russell Tice Reports Illegal Domestic Surveillance

| Importance: 9/10

NSA intelligence analyst Russell Tice contacts the Senate Intelligence Committee and journalists to report illegal domestic surveillance programs targeting American citizens without warrants. Tice revealed that NSA was conducting mass surveillance of Americans’ communications under programs …

Russell Tice NSA Senate Intelligence Committee James Risen New York Times +1 more nsa-whistleblowing illegal-surveillance constitutional-violation warrantless-surveillance mass-surveillance
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Hospital Confrontation Over NSA Surveillance Program

| Importance: 9/10

Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andy Card went to George Washington Hospital ICU to pressure hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize the NSA surveillance program that the Department of Justice had deemed illegal. Acting Attorney General James Comey raced to the hospital with …

John Ashcroft James Comey Alberto Gonzales Andy Card Robert Mueller rule-of-law executive-power surveillance stellarwind constitutional-crisis +5 more
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Bush Authorizes NSA Stellar Wind Program Bypassing FISA Court

| Importance: 10/10

President George W. Bush authorized the NSA’s Stellar Wind warrantless domestic surveillance program, completely bypassing FISA court oversight in a fundamental alteration of constitutional checks and balances. The program allowed the NSA to collect phone metadata and internet communications …

George W. Bush Michael Hayden NSA Dick Cheney David Addington +3 more surveillance nsa stellar-wind fisa-bypass constitutional-crisis +3 more
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