A U.S. federal law regulating the way that U.S. intelligence agencies conduct foreign intelligence surveillance activities, including wiretaps and the interception of communications. The act sets forth a judicial approval process required when the government targets U.S. persons located within the United States. FISA allows warrantless surveillance to be conducted without a court order for up to one year, provided the surveillance is for foreign intelligence information, is targeting foreign powers and will not capture the contents of any communication to which a U.S. person is a party. Generally speaking, FISA does not apply to activities directed at persons overseas.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, The
Tags:
Related Stories
Who is who, and what do they do? Executive powers over surveillance
There are any number of discussions on the news about intelligence gathering, the intelligence community, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as well as many other agencies with three-letter acronyms. One of the problems is many people don’t know what these entities are, or what they actual...
2019 global legislative predictions
What will the new year bring in privacy and data protection legislation? Well, to name just a few highlights, we've got a handful of EU member states still needing to pass laws addressing the General Data Protection Regulation, India is in the midst of debate over a new law, Brazil's law will get th...