EPIC, Coalition Request Meeting with FBI Director on Transparency and Surveillance Reform

In a letter sent today, EPIC and a coalition of civil society organizations requested a meeting with FBI Director, Kash Patel. The coalition outlined several issues to discuss, including improper U.S. Persons queries of data obtained via Section 702 surveillance, hiding surveillance techniques through parallel construction, and insufficient declassification and oversight among others. The FBI has been the biggest abuser of U.S. Persons queries of FISA Section 702 data (also known as warrantless backdoor searches) and EPIC along with other civil society organizations have called for a warrant requirement before searching U.S. Persons data obtained “incidentally” through Section 702. The FBI also has a history of hiding its surveillance techniques from defendants by reconstructing how it obtained the information used in criminal court cases through a process called parallel construction.