The coalition of booksellers, authors, readers and librarians that make up the Campaign for Reader Privacy has pressed the House Judiciary Committee to pass the bi-partisan USA Freedom Act of 2015. In a statement about the group's support, the coalition said the bill will "restore some privacy safeguards to the government’s surveillance activities."
In addition to curtailing some surveillance efforts by the government, the CRP added, the legislation would also, and most importantly, end the collection of data under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. The group has long been seeking to, it explained, "change the standard under which the government can seize sensitive records under Section 215 from one of 'relevance' to an ongoing terrorism investigation to an individualized standard of suspicion."
Although the new legislation is imperfect, CRP acknowledges, it, nonetheless, reduces the government's ability to investigate suspects based on the content they access in bookstores and libraries. As CRP explained, the new legislation "greatly reduces the danger that Section 215 can be used by the government to conduct 'fishing expeditions' in bookstores and libraries by requiring that all Section 215 orders include information identifying a specific person or account."
