The USA FREEDOM Act is a law that was enacted in 2015 to reform the surveillance practices of the U.S. government. The law was a response to the revelations by Edward Snowden about the mass collection of phone records and internet data by the National Security Agency (NSA) under the authority of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. The USA FREEDOM Act ended the bulk collection of telephone data and internet metadata by the NSA, and instead required the government to obtain a specific order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to access such data from the telecommunication providers. The law also authorized the following practices:

Emergency exceptions that allow the government to target roamers: The law allows the government to temporarily target a non-U.S. person who is using a phone number or identifier of a U.S. person, without a court order, if there is an emergency situation that involves a threat of death or serious bodily harm. The government must obtain a court order within seven days to continue the surveillance.

An increase in the maximum penalty for material support to terrorism: The law increases the maximum prison term for providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization from 15 years to 20 years.

An extension of the expiration for roving wiretaps: The law extends the sunset date for the roving wiretap provision of the USA PATRIOT Act, which allows the government to obtain a single order from the FISC to conduct surveillance on a target who switches devices or locations, without specifying the device or location. The law extends the expiration date from June 1, 2015 to December 15, 2019.Reference:

USA FREEDOM Act

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