FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate committee Tuesday he opposes a proposal to require the government to get a warrant before searching through foreign surveillance data for information on Americans.
Privacy advocates and some lawmakers have raised the possibility of adding such a requirement as Congress considers the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The authority expires at the end of the year and has been the subject of heated debate on Capitol Hill.
Section 702 allows the U.S. government to collect the digital communications of foreigners who are located outside the country. But some lawmakers from both parties have lambasted the breadth of the surveillance power and zeroed in on privacy concerns, such as how it allows U.S. authorities to run warrantless searches for information on Americans.
