In a letter sent Thursday to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the lawmakers say that because VPNs obscure a user’s true location, and because intelligence agencies presume that communications of unknown origin are foreign, Americans may be inadvertently waiving the privacy protections they’re entitled to under the law.

Several federal agencies, including the FBI, NSA, and FTC, have recommended that consumers use VPNs to protect their privacy. But following that advice may inadvertently cost Americans the very protections they’re seeking.

The letter was signed by members of the Democratic Party’s progressive flank: Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, and Alex Padilla, along with Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Sara Jacobs.

  • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    I’m curious how this works in action. If you use a VPN provider that doesn’t do logging, and inherently you’re traffic is encrypted via that VPN, what are they spying on? That’s kind of the whole purpose of running a VPN in the first place.

    If they happen to somehow see the unencrypted traffic, I hope they enjoy sifting through ass loads of torrent data. Good luck, shit bags.

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      8 hours ago

      It’s not so much spying as moving you to the front of the line for suspicious persons.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        I hope I’m there already. If I’m not then I’m not being vocal enough about how much I despise the current US government