0:00:00.833,0:00:02.960
We are all activists now.

0:00:03.600,0:00:04.896
(Applause)

0:00:04.920,0:00:06.120
Thank you.

0:00:06.680,0:00:08.016
I'll just stop here.

0:00:08.039,0:00:09.216
(Laughter)

0:00:09.240,0:00:13.920
From the families who are fighting[br]to maintain funding for public schools,

0:00:14.640,0:00:19.016
the tens of thousands of people[br]who joined Occupy Wall Street

0:00:19.040,0:00:21.216
or marched with Black Lives Matter

0:00:21.240,0:00:24.800
to protest police brutality[br]against African Americans,

0:00:25.760,0:00:28.256
families that join rallies,

0:00:28.280,0:00:30.280
pro-life and pro-choice,

0:00:31.600,0:00:33.336
those of us who are afraid

0:00:33.360,0:00:36.736
that our friends and neighbors[br]are going to be deported

0:00:36.760,0:00:38.736
or that they'll be added to lists

0:00:38.760,0:00:40.080
because they are Muslim,

0:00:41.480,0:00:45.720
people who advocate for gun rights[br]and for gun control

0:00:46.640,0:00:50.136
and the millions of people[br]who joined the women's marches

0:00:50.160,0:00:52.936
all across the country this last January.

0:00:52.960,0:00:55.616
(Applause)

0:00:55.640,0:00:57.736
We are all activists now,

0:00:57.760,0:01:02.240
and that means that we all have something[br]to worry about from surveillance.

0:01:03.320,0:01:06.016
Surveillance means[br]government collection and use

0:01:06.040,0:01:09.256
of private and sensitive data about us.

0:01:09.280,0:01:11.216
And surveillance is essential

0:01:11.240,0:01:14.336
to law enforcement[br]and to national security.

0:01:14.360,0:01:16.336
But the history of surveillance

0:01:16.360,0:01:19.856
is one that includes surveillance abuses

0:01:19.880,0:01:23.336
where this sensitive information[br]has been used against people

0:01:23.360,0:01:24.896
because of their race,

0:01:24.920,0:01:26.696
their national origin,

0:01:26.720,0:01:28.776
their sexual orientation,

0:01:28.800,0:01:31.976
and in particular,[br]because of their activism,

0:01:32.000,0:01:33.600
their political beliefs.

0:01:34.760,0:01:37.376
About 53 years ago,

0:01:37.400,0:01:40.936
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.[br]gave his "I have a dream" speech

0:01:40.960,0:01:42.240
on the Mall in Washington.

0:01:43.040,0:01:47.736
And today the ideas behind this speech[br]of racial equality and tolerance

0:01:47.760,0:01:49.696
are so noncontroversial

0:01:49.720,0:01:52.400
that my daughters[br]study the speech in third grade.

0:01:53.160,0:01:54.496
But at the time,

0:01:54.520,0:01:56.920
Dr. King was extremely controversial.

0:01:57.520,0:02:03.016
The legendary and notorious[br]FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover believed,

0:02:03.040,0:02:04.856
or wanted to believe,

0:02:04.880,0:02:08.455
that the Civil Rights Movement[br]was a Soviet communist plot

0:02:08.479,0:02:11.640
intended to destabilize[br]the American government.

0:02:12.080,0:02:18.336
And so Hoover had his agents[br]put bugs in Dr. King's hotel rooms,

0:02:18.360,0:02:23.896
and those bugs picked up conversations[br]between civil rights leaders

0:02:23.920,0:02:28.360
talking about the strategies and tactics[br]of the Civil Rights Movement.

0:02:29.080,0:02:31.296
They also picked up sounds of Dr. King

0:02:31.320,0:02:34.176
having sex with women[br]who were not his wife,

0:02:34.200,0:02:36.936
and J. Edgar Hoover[br]saw the opportunity here

0:02:36.960,0:02:40.600
to discredit and undermine[br]the Civil Rights Movement.

0:02:41.400,0:02:45.016
The FBI sent a package of these recordings

0:02:45.040,0:02:48.120
along with a handwritten note to Dr. King,

0:02:48.880,0:02:54.560
and a draft of this note[br]was found in FBI archives years later,

0:02:55.280,0:02:57.016
and the letter said,

0:02:57.040,0:02:59.816
"You are no clergyman and you know it.

0:02:59.840,0:03:03.400
King, like all frauds,[br]your end is approaching."

0:03:04.040,0:03:08.880
The letter even seemed[br]to encourage Dr. King to commit suicide,

0:03:09.560,0:03:13.336
saying, "King, there is[br]only one thing left for you to do.

0:03:13.360,0:03:14.936
You know what it is.

0:03:14.960,0:03:19.296
You better take it before[br]your filthy, abnormal, fraudulent self

0:03:19.320,0:03:21.176
is bared to the nation."

0:03:21.200,0:03:22.616
But the important thing is,

0:03:22.640,0:03:24.320
Dr. King was not abnormal.

0:03:24.880,0:03:29.040
Every one of us has something[br]that we want to hide from somebody.

0:03:30.000,0:03:31.816
And even more important,

0:03:31.840,0:03:34.320
J. Edgar Hoover wasn't abnormal either.

0:03:35.080,0:03:37.016
The history of surveillance abuses

0:03:37.040,0:03:40.440
is not the history[br]of one bad, megalomaniacal man.

0:03:41.080,0:03:44.096
Throughout his decades at the FBI,

0:03:44.120,0:03:47.856
J. Edgar Hoover enjoyed the support[br]of the presidents that he served,

0:03:47.880,0:03:50.160
Democratic and Republican alike.

0:03:50.680,0:03:54.016
After all, it was John F. Kennedy[br]and his brother Robert Kennedy

0:03:54.040,0:03:57.000
who knew about and approved[br]the surveillance of Dr. King.

0:03:58.640,0:04:03.056
Hoover ran a program[br]called COINTELPRO for 15 years

0:04:03.080,0:04:07.856
which was designed[br]to spy on and undermine civic groups

0:04:07.880,0:04:10.616
that were devoted[br]to things like civil rights,

0:04:10.640,0:04:12.376
the Women's Rights Movement,

0:04:12.400,0:04:15.136
and peace groups and anti-war movements.

0:04:15.160,0:04:17.519
And the surveillance didn't stop there.

0:04:17.959,0:04:19.656
Lyndon Baines Johnson,

0:04:19.680,0:04:21.696
during the election campaign,

0:04:21.720,0:04:27.696
had the campaign airplane[br]of his rival Barry Goldwater bugged

0:04:27.720,0:04:30.520
as part of his effort[br]to win that election.

0:04:31.200,0:04:33.880
And then, of course, there was Watergate.

0:04:35.520,0:04:36.976
Burglars were caught

0:04:37.000,0:04:39.856
breaking into the Democratic[br]National Committee headquarters

0:04:39.880,0:04:41.416
at the Watergate Hotel,

0:04:41.440,0:04:45.616
the Nixon administration was involved[br]in covering up the burglary,

0:04:45.640,0:04:49.120
and eventually Nixon[br]had to step down as president.

0:04:50.040,0:04:54.776
COINTELPRO and Watergate[br]were a wake-up call for Americans.

0:04:54.800,0:04:56.656
Surveillance was out of control

0:04:56.680,0:05:00.520
and it was being used[br]to squelch political challengers.

0:05:01.240,0:05:03.776
And so Americans rose to the occasion

0:05:03.800,0:05:07.240
and what we did was[br]we reformed surveillance law.

0:05:08.160,0:05:12.536
And the primary tool we used[br]to reform surveillance law

0:05:12.560,0:05:15.256
was to require a search warrant

0:05:15.280,0:05:21.240
for the government to be able to get[br]access to our phone calls and our letters.

0:05:21.720,0:05:24.576
Now, the reason why[br]a search warrant is important

0:05:24.600,0:05:26.936
is because it interposes a judge

0:05:26.960,0:05:30.576
in the relationship[br]between investigators and the citizens,

0:05:30.600,0:05:33.576
and that judge's job is to make sure

0:05:33.600,0:05:36.216
that there's good cause[br]for the surveillance,

0:05:36.240,0:05:39.656
that the surveillance[br]is targeted at the right people,

0:05:39.680,0:05:42.176
and that the information that's collected

0:05:42.200,0:05:45.816
is going to be used[br]for legitimate government purposes

0:05:45.840,0:05:48.776
and not for discriminatory ones.

0:05:48.800,0:05:50.016
This was our system,

0:05:50.040,0:05:51.296
and what this means is

0:05:51.320,0:05:55.136
that President Obama[br]did not wiretap Trump Tower.

0:05:55.160,0:05:59.976
The system is set up to prevent[br]something like that from happening

0:06:00.000,0:06:01.840
without a judge being involved.

0:06:02.480,0:06:07.080
But what happens when we're not talking[br]about phone calls or letters anymore?

0:06:08.520,0:06:11.216
Today, we have technology

0:06:11.240,0:06:15.416
that makes it cheap and easy[br]for the government to collect information

0:06:15.440,0:06:18.120
on ordinary everyday people.

0:06:18.560,0:06:21.256
Your phone call records

0:06:21.280,0:06:24.896
can reveal whether you have an addiction,

0:06:24.920,0:06:26.376
what your religion is,

0:06:26.400,0:06:29.056
what charities you donate to,

0:06:29.080,0:06:31.560
what political candidate you support.

0:06:32.040,0:06:36.136
And yet, our government[br]collected, dragnet-style,

0:06:36.160,0:06:39.120
Americans' calling records for years.

0:06:40.320,0:06:44.456
In 2012, the Republican[br]National Convention

0:06:44.480,0:06:47.856
highlighted a new technology[br]it was planning to use,

0:06:47.880,0:06:49.376
facial recognition,

0:06:49.400,0:06:52.376
to identify people[br]who were going to be in the crowd

0:06:52.400,0:06:54.856
who might be activists or troublemakers

0:06:54.880,0:06:56.440
and to stop them ahead of time.

0:06:57.200,0:07:00.896
Today, over 50 percent of American adults

0:07:00.920,0:07:03.320
have their faceprint[br]in a government database.

0:07:03.920,0:07:07.216
The Bureau of Alcohol,[br]Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

0:07:07.240,0:07:08.776
concocted a plan

0:07:08.800,0:07:12.336
to find out what Americans[br]were going to gun shows

0:07:12.360,0:07:14.856
by using license plate detectors

0:07:14.880,0:07:16.976
to scan the license plates of cars

0:07:17.000,0:07:19.240
that were in the parking lots[br]of these events.

0:07:19.880,0:07:24.296
Today, we believe that over 70 percent[br]of police departments

0:07:24.320,0:07:27.416
have automatic license plate[br]detection technology

0:07:27.440,0:07:30.880
that they're using to track people's cars[br]as they drive through town.

0:07:31.960,0:07:34.576
And all of this information,

0:07:34.600,0:07:37.536
the license plates, the faceprints,

0:07:37.560,0:07:39.136
the phone records,

0:07:39.160,0:07:41.976
your address books, your buddy lists,

0:07:42.000,0:07:46.416
the photos that you upload[br]to Dropbox or Google Photos,

0:07:46.440,0:07:50.416
and sometimes even[br]your chats and your emails

0:07:50.440,0:07:53.000
are not protected[br]by a warrant requirement.

0:07:53.760,0:07:59.336
So what that means is we have[br]all of this information on regular people

0:07:59.360,0:08:02.560
that's newly available[br]at very low expense.

0:08:03.040,0:08:05.120
It is the golden age for surveillance.

0:08:06.480,0:08:11.776
Now, every parent is going[br]to understand what this means.

0:08:11.800,0:08:13.936
When you have a little baby

0:08:13.960,0:08:15.896
and the baby's young,

0:08:15.920,0:08:19.176
that child is not able[br]to climb out of its crib.

0:08:19.200,0:08:22.096
But eventually your little girl gets older

0:08:22.120,0:08:25.056
and she's able to climb out of the crib,

0:08:25.080,0:08:28.856
but you tell her,[br]"Don't climb out of the crib. OK?"

0:08:28.880,0:08:31.056
And every parent knows[br]what's going to happen.

0:08:31.080,0:08:34.080
Some of those babies[br]are going to climb out of the crib.

0:08:34.559,0:08:38.216
Right? That's the difference[br]between ability and permission.

0:08:38.240,0:08:40.856
Well, the same thing is true[br]with the government today.

0:08:40.880,0:08:43.655
It used to be that our government[br]didn't have the ability

0:08:43.679,0:08:47.256
to do widespread, massive surveillance[br]on hundreds of millions of Americans

0:08:47.280,0:08:48.840
and then abuse that information.

0:08:49.520,0:08:51.376
But now our government has grown up,

0:08:51.400,0:08:53.360
and we have that technology today.

0:08:54.200,0:08:56.776
The government has the ability,

0:08:56.800,0:09:00.376
and that means the law[br]is more important than ever before.

0:09:00.400,0:09:02.136
The law is supposed to say

0:09:02.160,0:09:06.176
when the government[br]has permission to do it,

0:09:06.200,0:09:10.336
and it's supposed to ensure[br]that there's some kind of ramification.

0:09:10.360,0:09:12.856
We notice when those laws are broken

0:09:12.880,0:09:15.576
and there's some of kind of[br]ramification or punishment.

0:09:15.600,0:09:19.016
The law is more important than ever[br]because we are now living in a world

0:09:19.040,0:09:21.136
where only rules[br]are stopping the government

0:09:21.160,0:09:22.600
from abusing this information.

0:09:23.120,0:09:25.440
But the law has fallen down on the job.

0:09:25.840,0:09:29.776
Particularly since September 11[br]the law has fallen down on the job,

0:09:29.800,0:09:32.480
and we do not have[br]the rules in place that we need.

0:09:33.400,0:09:35.840
And we are seeing[br]the ramifications of that.

0:09:36.200,0:09:39.456
So fusion centers[br]are these joint task forces

0:09:39.480,0:09:41.776
between local, state[br]and federal government

0:09:41.800,0:09:45.016
that are meant to ferret out[br]domestic terrorism.

0:09:45.040,0:09:47.536
And what we've seen[br]is fusion center reports

0:09:47.560,0:09:51.336
that say that you might be dangerous

0:09:51.360,0:09:54.296
if you voted for a third-party candidate,

0:09:54.320,0:09:57.496
or you own a "Don't Tread On Me" flag,

0:09:57.520,0:10:01.280
or you watched movies that are anti-tax.

0:10:01.880,0:10:06.656
These same fusion centers have spied[br]on Muslim community groups' reading lists

0:10:06.680,0:10:11.000
and on Quakers who are resisting[br]military recruiting in high schools.

0:10:12.680,0:10:16.856
The Internal Revenue Service[br]has disproportionately audited

0:10:16.880,0:10:20.536
groups that have "Tea Party"[br]or "Patriot" in their name.

0:10:20.560,0:10:23.136
And now customs and border patrol

0:10:23.160,0:10:25.936
is stopping people[br]as they come into the country

0:10:25.960,0:10:29.136
and demanding our social[br]networking passwords

0:10:29.160,0:10:31.736
which will allow them[br]to see who our friends are,

0:10:31.760,0:10:32.976
what we say

0:10:33.000,0:10:35.720
and even to impersonate us online.

0:10:36.520,0:10:39.176
Now, civil libertarians like myself

0:10:39.200,0:10:43.336
have been trying to draw[br]people's attention to these things

0:10:43.360,0:10:45.936
and fighting against them for years.

0:10:45.960,0:10:50.160
This was a huge problem[br]during the Obama administration,

0:10:50.960,0:10:53.240
but now the problem is worse.

0:10:54.520,0:10:56.976
When the New York Police Department

0:10:57.000,0:10:58.696
spies on Muslims

0:10:58.720,0:11:02.576
or a police department[br]uses license plate detectors

0:11:02.600,0:11:06.496
to find out where[br]the officers' spouses are

0:11:06.520,0:11:07.776
or those sorts of things,

0:11:07.800,0:11:09.240
that is extremely dangerous.

0:11:09.920,0:11:12.976
But when a president repurposes the power

0:11:13.000,0:11:15.496
of federal surveillance[br]and the federal government

0:11:15.520,0:11:18.576
to retaliate against political opposition,

0:11:18.600,0:11:19.800
that is a tyranny.

0:11:20.480,0:11:23.800
And so we are all activists now,

0:11:24.640,0:11:27.960
and we all have something[br]to fear from surveillance.

0:11:28.760,0:11:32.536
But just like in the time[br]of Dr. Martin Luther King,

0:11:32.560,0:11:34.640
we can reform the way things are.

0:11:35.920,0:11:38.320
First of all, use encryption.

0:11:39.120,0:11:42.016
Encryption protects your information

0:11:42.040,0:11:46.856
from being inexpensively[br]and opportunistically collected.

0:11:46.880,0:11:50.000
It rolls back the golden age[br]for surveillance.

0:11:52.080,0:11:54.840
Second, support surveillance reform.

0:11:55.720,0:11:57.896
Did you know that if you have a friend

0:11:57.920,0:12:01.016
who works for the French[br]or German governments

0:12:01.040,0:12:04.176
or for an international human rights group

0:12:04.200,0:12:07.576
or for a global oil company

0:12:07.600,0:12:11.560
that your friend is a valid[br]foreign intelligence target?

0:12:11.920,0:12:16.056
And what that means is that when[br]you have conversations with that friend,

0:12:16.080,0:12:19.240
the US government[br]may be collecting that information.

0:12:20.320,0:12:23.576
And when that information is collected,

0:12:23.600,0:12:25.776
even though it's[br]conversations with Americans,

0:12:25.800,0:12:28.896
it can then be funneled to the FBI

0:12:28.920,0:12:31.376
where the FBI is allowed[br]to search through it

0:12:31.400,0:12:32.776
without getting a warrant,

0:12:32.800,0:12:34.456
without probable cause,

0:12:34.480,0:12:36.696
looking for information about Americans

0:12:36.720,0:12:40.136
and whatever crimes we may have committed

0:12:40.160,0:12:43.200
with no need to document[br]any kind of suspicion.

0:12:43.920,0:12:46.896
The law that allows some of this to happen

0:12:46.920,0:12:51.016
is called Section 702[br]of the FISA Amendments Act,

0:12:51.040,0:12:53.576
and we have a great opportunity this year,

0:12:53.600,0:12:58.336
because Section 702[br]is going to expire at the end of 2017,

0:12:58.360,0:13:02.976
which means that[br]Congress's inertia is on our side

0:13:03.000,0:13:04.576
if we want reform.

0:13:04.600,0:13:08.296
And we can pressure our representatives

0:13:08.320,0:13:11.816
to actually implement[br]important reforms to this law

0:13:11.840,0:13:15.200
and protect our data[br]from this redirection and misuse.

0:13:16.560,0:13:21.576
And finally, one of the reasons[br]why things have gotten so out of control

0:13:21.600,0:13:24.496
is because so much[br]of what happens with surveillance --

0:13:24.520,0:13:29.056
the technology, the enabling rules[br]and the policies

0:13:29.080,0:13:32.656
that are either there[br]or not there to protect us --

0:13:32.680,0:13:35.096
are secret or classified.

0:13:35.120,0:13:39.336
We need transparency,[br]and we need to know as Americans

0:13:39.360,0:13:41.896
what the government is doing in our name

0:13:41.920,0:13:46.496
so that the surveillance that takes place[br]and the use of that information

0:13:46.520,0:13:49.000
is democratically accounted for.

0:13:50.400,0:13:52.496
We are all activists now,

0:13:52.520,0:13:56.160
which means that we all have something[br]to worry about from surveillance.

0:13:56.720,0:14:00.136
But like in the time[br]of Dr. Martin Luther King,

0:14:00.160,0:14:02.456
there is stuff that we can do about it.

0:14:02.480,0:14:06.400
So please join me, and let's get to work.

0:14:07.000,0:14:08.216
Thank you.

0:14:08.240,0:14:12.000
(Applause)