UPDATE: Lawmakers have introduced bipartisan bill to permanently end the NSA’s phone record surveillance program. Sign this petition to voice your support for the “Ending Mass Collection of Americans’ Phone Records Act.” While this bill seeks to end just one of the programs authorized by Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT ACT, it’s a major first step in restoring civil liberties eroded by the U.S. government’s mass surveillance machine.

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The law that allows the U.S. government to spy on all of our phone calls (Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act) will expire at the end of 2019—unless this new Congress reauthorizes it. Don’t let them.  

Here’s why:

• It violates our right to privacy: Proponents of Section 215 argue that the U.S. government should be able to collect EVERYTHING in order to find something that COULD be relevant to an investigation. This is warrant-less surveillance, it’s against the Constitution, and it must stop.

• It lacks transparency: The program is plagued with technical difficulties that have resulted in telecom companies handing hundreds of millions of call and text records to the NSA that the agency should have never received. The government has been unable to confirm whether these abuses have been overcome.

• It’s ineffective: The U.S. government claims that it should be able to trample on our civil rights in the name of national security, but this dragnet surveillance program has never made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counter-terrorism investigation.

• It disproportionately targets activists, racial and religious minorities, and journalists: When people know they're under surveillance, they are more likely to limit their own freedom of expression, engaging in self-censorship for fear of government retaliation. Surveillance is not about protecting us, it's about control.

It’s been more than five years since Edward Snowden’s leaks disclosed that the Bush and Obama administrations had been using Section 215 to secretly acquire practically everyone’s  phone data in bulk.

A New York Times story published in March 2019 suggests that the NSA hasn’t even been using the bulk phone record collection program for at least six months. This hasn’t been confirmed by the NSA, but it does suggest that the program is not effective and that continued transparency and privacy issues have yet to be resolved. In March 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress responded by introducing a bill to permanently end this particular program.

There are nearly 100 new members of Congress in 2019. It’s up to us to make sure these new members and their colleagues do the right thing by ending this ineffective mass surveillance program.

Take action now to tell your representatives: “I urge you to end mass surveillance. Please cosponsor the “Ending Mass Collection of Americans’ Phone Records Act,” and do not vote to reauthorize Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. These programs are not effective and violate our right to privacy.”