Senator: let’s fix “third-party doctrine” that enabled NSA mass snooping | Ars Technica

Senator: let’s fix “third-party doctrine” that enabled NSA mass snooping | Ars Technica: "Let’s take some of these devices one by one. As your readers know, for weeks now we’ve been told that there is going to be a Burr-Feinstein bill in the United States Senate that in fact would be a piece of legislation that would, in effect, mandate that a private company weaken the security of their products so they would be to comply with a court order. The first thing that I want to do as part of our strategy is to block that legislation. And I’m going to argue that it should be blocked on the grounds that it will weaken the security of millions of Americans. The second thing that I want to do after we block that bill is pass affirmative legislation that I’ve introduced called the Secure Data Act, where we wouldn’t be talking about blocking legislation, but talking about affirmative action to ensure the security of the data of millions of Americans. So those would clearly be two steps that would be very relevant to today’s discussion. Beyond that, with respect to the third-party doctrine. I think that when people enter into a private business relationship, they don’t expect that that’s going to be public. And particularly now in an age of digital services I think it’s important that that law be re-written: that law stems from a decision that’s decades old. And I’m encouraged that even people like Justice Sotomayor thinks it ought to be rewritten. So that’s the third area."

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