Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast

The law that enables the warrantless collection and searching of the communications of US citizens is set to expire at the end of 2017. In today’s show, David Ruiz and I discuss several bills in Congress that attempt to curb the rampant abuses of this legislation (Section 702 of the FISA law). These long-overdue reforms go a long way towards restoring the principles of the Fourth Amendment and reclaiming basic civil liberties that we let slip away in fear after 9/11. In the news this week, I’ll update you on the Reaper botnet and tell you about an effort to safeguard our elections systems before the next major election. I’ll also help you double-check your smartphone app permissions, making sure they don’t have any more access than they need to things like your camera, microphone, location, and contacts. David Ruiz is a writer covering NSA surveillance and federal surveillance policy for Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights non-profit. As 2017 closes, he is deeply involved in covering the multip