Leading technology and civil liberties organizations are putting their support behind an updated Senate bill to curb the National Security Agency’s wide-ranging surveillance and make its activities more transparent.
Microsoft Corp., the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the American Civil Liberties Union are among the organizations that have endorsed a new USA Freedom Act, which Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., released Tuesday. The legislation, which has the backing of several Democratic senators and Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Dean Heller of Nevada and Mike Lee of Utah, makes changes intended to strengthen the USA Freedom Act legislation that Leahy and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., introduced last year. That version passed the House of Representatives in May.
