United States. Surveillance / law enforcement access. Act
USA FREEDOM ActUSA FREEDOM Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 114-23)
Partly verified
Medium confidence.Several of its extended authorities lapsed on 2020-03-15 but the Act's amendments remain in the statute. Wikipedia's infobox gives 2 June 2015 as the signing date. Confirmed in the public law text: Pub. L. 114-23, H.R. 2048, 114th Congress, approved 2 Jun 2015, 129 Stat. 268. The CRS R40138 source was removed from this record. Effective date: the Act's own effective-date provisions were not read, so the enactment date is used.
§1Summary
- Synopsis
Reauthorised expiring USA PATRIOT Act provisions and amended section 215 to bar the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata, requiring a specific selection term. Call-detail-record production required reasonable grounds of relevance and a reasonable, articulable suspicion linked to terrorism.
- Key themes
- Unique features
First major post-Snowden curtailment of bulk surveillance. In August 2019 the NSA reportedly suspended the call-detail-records programme and deleted the records.
- SaaS relevance
Context for provider responses to FISA business-records orders.
§2Obligations
- Breach notification
- None
- DPO
- No
- Cross-border transfers
- None
§3Dates
- Key dates
- Adopted
- In force
- Pub. L. 114-23 (129 Stat. 268) signed 2 Jun 2015. Section 215 call-detail-record authority later lapsed (see us-patriot-act-sunset-2020).
§4Text and authority
- Text
- Authoritative text congress.gov
- Authority
- US Department of Justice; Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
§5Where it applies
- Domestic law of
- United States
- Also applies in
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Guam
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Puerto Rico
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- US Virgin Islands
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
§6Sources and verification
- Sources consulted
- Verification
Medium confidence.
Partly verified
Medium confidence.Several of its extended authorities lapsed on 2020-03-15 but the Act's amendments remain in the statute. Wikipedia's infobox gives 2 June 2015 as the signing date. Confirmed in the public law text: Pub. L. 114-23, H.R. 2048, 114th Congress, approved 2 Jun 2015, 129 Stat. 268. The CRS R40138 source was removed from this record. Effective date: the Act's own effective-date provisions were not read, so the enactment date is used.