Part of the Patriot Act is what gave the NSA the ability to gather phone records and data. The Patriot Act expired earlier this year after an extension by President Obama and now congress has not renewed it in its totality.
Congress has passed the “Freedom Act,” which maintains three of the aspects of the original Patriot Act, such as roving wiretaps, searches of business records and the ability to conduct surveillance on “lone wolves.” What has not been renewed is mass gathering of phone traffic data, and Mike and Erik discuss how much of our personal freedom and right to privacy we are willing to give up for safety.
