Government officials, lawyers, and privacy advocates will...

Government officials, lawyers, and privacy advocates will debate the legal and policy issues of the government’s Internet surveillance program during a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) all-day hearing Wednesday, said a PCLOB Thursday evening news release. General counsels from the FBI, NSA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence will start with the administration’s position on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which authorizes Internet surveillance actions. Civil society group representatives -- American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer and Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program Counsel Rachel Levinson-Waldman -- will join law professors from Georgetown University Law School and Hofstra University to discuss Section 702’s legal issues. An international panel of lawyers, academics and researchers will conclude by weighing in on the transnational policy issues Section 702 raises. PCLOB is preparing a report that will focus on Internet surveillance, which it expects to release in a couple months (CD Jan 31 p15). The board’s previous report recommended eliminating the government’s phone metadata collection program, suggesting seeking that metadata from communications providers instead while imposing data retention mandates (CD Jan 24 p5).