krmaher

Totally. I'd point out that international civil society organizations made a statement to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday about this. Here's the statement: http://bestbits.net/prism-nsa/

And here's the story about how it happened: https://www.accessnow.org/blog/2013/06/10/broad-civil-society-coalition-delivers-statement-to-un-hrc-on-surveillance-

Also, the UN Human Rights Council also recently received a report by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Frank La Rue, on this exact subject: surveillance and human rights, which specifically mentioned FISA. Because of the mention of FISA, the U.S. delegation declined to endorse his findings.

Specifically, La Rue said that the superior technical capabilities of states, along with the increasingly favorable economics of surveillance, means that states can now “achieve almost complete control of tele- and online communications.”

In its section on the extra-territorial application of surveillance law, La Rue cited FISA as part of “alarming trend towards the extension of surveillance powers beyond territorial borders," which would increase the "risk of cooperative agreements between State law enforcement and security agencies to enable the evasion of domestic legal restrictions," and that "these forms of surveillance raise “serious concern with regard to the... inability of individuals to know that they might be subject to foreign surveillance, challenge decisions with respect to foreign surveillance, or seek remedies.”

Hey there! There are a few things that people can do to help. As taliesan said, you can sign the petition at StopWatching.Us. We'll be continuing to evolve the site so that international folks can better take part, and then we'll be delivering those petitions to Congress.

You can also sign onto a joint petition by Access and EFF to the CEOs of the nine internet companies listed in the Guardian and other reports. A huge part of their existing and growth markets are outside the US. Tell them that as a customer, you demand they use their influence and stature to call on Congress for reforms. They all have big offices in DC and contacts in Congress. Here's the link to Access' petition: https://www.accessnow.org/page/s/denials-are-not-enough, and here's the one from EFF: https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9297 (they're the same letter).

Finally, as a UK -- or European -- citizen, you can get in touch with your MEP from the UK and demand they support the European Commission's inquiry into PRISM.

While you're at it, you probably want to tell those MEPs to support a strong Data Protection Regulation -- legislation currently in front of committee that will be critical to preserving privacy in Europe: http://nakedcitizens.eu/

Edit: embedded links

Thanks for the feedback! We've been working hard at getting the message out on social media and elsewhere, but sometimes it's hard to ensure that everyone is aware of our efforts ahead of time. TheDayWeFightBack.org has been up for about a month now, and you can see our Facebook page has also been up since January 10th...

This affects those outside the US as much, if not more, than those inside the US, as foreign nationals are explicitly the targets of this surveillance, and are not subject to the same protections afforded American citizens under law.

Much of the response to these revelations from the US administration and Congress has been to emphasize that "Americans" are not targeted (although that's a really low barrier of assessment, of just 49% likelihood that you are not a 'US person'). That reinforces the fact that these programs are explicitly intended to capture the communications of individuals outside of the United States.

This is a fairly clear violation of your rights to privacy and free expression as outlined in Articles 17 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) -- to which the United States is signatory -- as well as Articles 12 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.