EPIC, Coalition Urge Congressional Leaders to Protect Americans and Reform FISA Section 702

In a letter to Congressional leadership, EPIC joined a coalition of civil rights and privacy organizations in urging Congress to close the backdoor search and data broker loopholes. The backdoor search loophole allows the government to access, without a warrant, Americans’ communication obtained incidentally through Section 702 surveillance. Similarly, the data broker loophole allows the government to buy information from data brokers that would normally require a warrant to obtain if the government collected it directly. The risks to our privacy and civil rights becomes greater as government use of AI increases. The coalition noted, “[a]s artificial intelligence tools are integrated into surveillance systems, they risk expanding the government’s ability to collect, search, and analyze Americans’ personal information in ways that could disproportionately harm Black, Brown, immigrant, and other marginalized communities.”

EPIC has long supported meaningful reforms of FISA Section 702 and supports previously introduced bills from both sides of the aisle that would reauthorize Section 702 of FISA while closing both the backdoor search and data broker loopholes; namely, the Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2026 (GSRA); the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act of 2026 (SAFE Act); and the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act of 2026 (Protect Liberty Act). EPIC previously published a blog series—including this overview of the issue explaining why the law must be reformed.