[desdiv]

They did, in a separate article:

Update, Nov 18: The USA Freedom Act does not renew the entirety of the Patriot Act, which consisted of over 100 sections changing numerous electronic surveillance laws. The USA Freedom Act does extend three provisions of the Patriot Act: the "lone wolf" provision, the "roving wire tap" provision, and a reformed Section 215.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/usa-freedom-act-week-w...

[scintill76]

Thanks for the reference. Hmm, Section 215's "business records" provision, that little thing EFF told us the NSA is using "to collect the calling information of every American"?[0] It sounds like EFF prefers to use "Freedom Act" to put some plastic handcuffs on the program, instead of trying to starve it when its justification disappears. EFF has fought against the renewal of these exact same 3 provisions in the past[1][2]; why do they accept them now?!

I guess they project the 215 revisions will be extended in another bill if necessary anyway? So they supported a more minor reform they thought more likely to pass? I wish they'd be more open about the compromise, then. The 100 vs. 3 comparison seems a little oversimplified -- I would guess many of those >100 sections don't have an expiration date, or at least expire on a different date than these 3 (which were last renewed in 2011[3] against EFF's wishes.) I am making an assumption here about what the 100 sections means.

In any case, I'm rather upset they're on the record fighting these in the past, yet now they barely mention them at all, and only in what I see to be a hand-wavy "lesser evil" excuse. I know "perfect is the enemy of the good", but I don't think "Freedom Act" is even all that good.

[0] https://www.eff.org/document/215-one-pager-adv

[1] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/02/epic-fail-congress-usa...

[2] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/tell-your-representati...

[3] http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/27/nation/la-na-patriot...