President Trump, Congress complain about surveillance, yet may enable spying by Internet companies

[Commentary] President Donald Trump and some of his supporters on Capitol Hill have recently been expressing anxiety over the possibility of politically motivated surveillance and leaks by our intelligence agencies. But ironically, at the very same time they are moving to give our nation’s largest Internet telecommunications companies even more power to share their customers’ data, including with the government, without permission. Indeed, some of the most ardent critics of government surveillance — including Sen Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen Heller (R-NV) — are among those leading the charge to roll back rules that would prevent such abuses by companies.

[Jay Stanley is a Senior Policy Analyst at the ACLU's Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology.]