Luncheon: New Safeguards and Oversight for Bulk Collection

Panel Discussion

Effective intelligence oversight can serve as bulwark against the erosion of fundamental rights, but most democracies, including the U.S., struggle with it. Surveillance technology evolves quickly and intelligence law is highly complex. History is replete with examples of inadequate and broken intelligence oversight and there are few comparative resources that point to actual innovation in this field.

Against this backdrop, Dr. Thorsten Wetzling of SNV will introduce findings from a new international study on the democratic control of bulk surveillance in 13 democracies. Using examples drawn from sixty-four concrete practices, this study shows that some countries have gone further than others in in adopting oversight measures. They include, for example, providing oversight bodies direct access to raw intelligence, requring broad warrants for bulk collection, new tools that allow for “predictive oversight,” and an adequacy assessment of prospective intelligence sharing partner countries.

Should the U.S. adopt oversight practices and legal safeguards that other countries have adopted to govern bulk surveillance? We invite you to join us for a panel discussion, moderated by Greg Nojeim, Senior Counsel & Director of the CDT Freedom, Security and Technology Project.

Panelists:

Alexander Joel, Chief of the Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency (CLPT) for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

Robert S. Litt, Counsel, Morrison Foerster, and former General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence

Sharon Bradford Franklin, Director of Surveillance & Cybersecurity Policy, New America's Open Technology Institute, and former Executive Director of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

Date: 
12/10/2018 - 12:00pm to 2:00pm