We write to urge that the Senate Judiciary Committee promptly hold confirmation hearings on President Obama’s nominees to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). As you know, as of December of last year, President Obama has nominated a full bipartisan slate of five nominees to serve on the Board … While many of our organizations do not take positions endorsing or opposing any specific candidates, we all agree it is critical that this Committee and the full Senate act quickly to move forward with the confirmation process and allow the PCLOB to begin its important work.

We the undersigned consumer rights, human rights, technology, and civil liberties organizations, members of the EPIC Advisory Board, and members of the general public submit this Petition to the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) to urge the Agency to conduct a rulemaking to address the threat to privacy and civil liberties that will result from the deployment of aerial drones within United States. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 provides a timely opportunity for you to address this critical question.

We the undersigned organizations urge you to vote ‘no’ on H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA). We are gravely concerned that this bill will allow companies that hold very sensitive and personal information to liberally share it with the government, which could then use the information without meaningful oversight for purposes unrelated to cybersecurity. We understand this bill is scheduled to be considered on the House floor during “Cybersecurity Week,” the week of April 23^rd.

We the undersigned organizations write in opposition to amendments that would strip privacy protections from Title VII, the information sharing title of S. 3414, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. …we are in agreement that the current version of Title VII should be considered the privacy floor, and not the ceiling. To that end, we strongly oppose amendments that have been, or are expected to be offered that would substitute the information sharing provisions of SECURE IT or otherwise weaken privacy safeguards.

We write to urge you to ensure that any new cybersecurity information sharing bill considered in the Senate in 2013 at least maintains the privacy protections from Title VII, the information sharing title of S. 3414, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. We agree that the protections in Title VII of S. 3414 last year should be considered the privacy floor, and not the ceiling for any cybersecurity legislation. To that end, we would strongly oppose any effort to bring to the Senate floor the information sharing provisions of last year’s SECURE IT bill, or otherwise weaken privacy safeguards.

NACDL respectfully submits the following comments to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in response to the Interim Study to address the privacy questions raised by the operation of unmanned aircraft systems, also known as drones, in Oklahoma. ... NACDL applauds the House of Representatives for taking the first step in studying the privacy implications raised by the use of domestic surveillance drones, and we look forward to ongoing conversations about the privacy and civil liberties impact of this new technology as you move forward with the study.

We write today to urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to quickly complete an updated Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Next Generation Identification System (NGI) as part of a broader effort to examine the goals and impact of NGI. The previous PIA on NGI’s face recognition component dates back to 2008. Since that time the program has undergone a radical transformation—one that raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns.

On behalf of a broad coalition of civil liberties organizations, we write in support of the USA RIGHTS Act [S. 1997], legislation that contains meaningful reforms to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”), which is set to expire at year’s end. These reforms are imperative given our government’s historical abuse of surveillance authorities, contemporary noncompliance with this authority, and the danger posed by potential future abuses.

The undersigned privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, and government oversight organizations write in strong opposition to the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 (S. 2010). This legislation is masquerading as a moderate “reform” bill. In fact, however, it would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for eight years without making any meaningful reforms to better protect privacy. Indeed, in some respects, the bill represents an expansion of the government’s surveillance authorities under Section 702.

The undersigned groups write to express our strong opposition to H.R. 4478, as amended by the manager’s amendment introduced by Representative Nunes, which is scheduled to be considered at 4 p.m. today. We urge you to vote “no” on this bill. Some have suggested this bill is reform—but it is just the opposite. This bill fails to meaningfully address the litany of abuses that have occurred under Section 702, risks codifying current illegal practices, and could be read as expanding surveillance under Section 702. As such, we believe it is markedly worse than the current Section 702 statute.

The undersigned organizations representing a diverse universe of constituents who care about civil rights and civil liberties write in support of S. 417, the State Secrets Protection Act. This bill strikes an appropriate balance between allowing plaintiffs to seek justice through our judicial system and protecting information that would endanger national security if released to the litigants or the public. We urge the bill’s immediate passage.

We again express our appreciation for your statements in support of investigating the activities of the Administration in carrying out electronic surveillance and related activities inside the United States without the judicial orders required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. However, we are very concerned that you are planning to move forward with legislation before completing a thorough investigation, and we are deeply disturbed by the latest draft that your office has circulated.

We are very glad that the Board has been fully constituted, and we greatly appreciate your immediate attention and work in response to the recent disclosures concerning NSA surveillance. We understand that you are meeting to consider the impact of these NSA programs on privacy and civil liberties. We write to ask that, as one of your first action items, you urge the administration to make public information about the legal authorities for government surveillance of Americans.

We urge the Judiciary Committee to amend the bill to make critically important improvements to Section 215 of the Patriot Act and to the material support statute. [referring to the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009 (H.R. 3845)]

We urge the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to follow the House’s lead and to recommend that backdoor searches under section 702 be prohibited. Such access should be granted only when the government has obtained an order from the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] Court upon a showing of probable cause that the U.S. person whose communications are sought is an agent of a foreign power.