Landau testifies on privacy and civil liberties panel

Bridge Professor Susan Landau joined a panel of experts on May 31, 2019 in Washington, D.C. for a public forum examining the USA Freedom Act and the NSA’s Call Detail Records Program. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board assembled this forum to provide an opportunity to hear a range of perspectives regarding the act’s history, implementation, present challenges, and future.

According to the Washington Post, the USA Freedom Act contains several modified provisions of the Patriot Act, but imposes limits on the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records and internet metadata. Multiple key provisions of the act are scheduled to expire in December 2019 pending the reauthorization of Congress.

Landau, who was recently appointed to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Encryption Working Group, offered her expertise on communications privacy and the use of communications tools by terrorists. Landau was joined by fellow experts Jamil N. Jaffer, Jonathan Mayer, Julian Sanchez, Caroline Lynch, and Michael Bahar.