Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has acknowledged that disagreements persist between Democrats and Republicans as they strive to reach an agreement on renewing a crucial intelligence community surveillance tool before it expires. The tool in question is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which enjoys broad support in the Senate but faces opposition from critics in both parties due to privacy concerns.
Under FISA's Section 702, the government collects vast amounts of internet and cell phone data on foreign targets, with incidental collection of information on hundreds of thousands of Americans. This data is accessed without a warrant, leading to concerns about privacy violations and 'backdoor' searches.
