老澳门开奖结果

Originally posted on .

Yesterday, the next hearing in took place before the in . We this lawsuit in March 2015, to protect the free expression and privacy rights of Wikimedia users. The lawsuit challenges the government鈥檚 鈥溾�� mass surveillance practices, which capture communications as they cross the . This lawsuit is one of several steps we have taken to protect the privacy of Wikimedia users, including access across all the projects.

In October 2015, the lawsuit was on procedural grounds at the district court level following a hearing before Judge T.S. Ellis, III, who found that Wikimedia and our eight co-plaintiffs lacked to bring the claims. We this ruling to the Fourth Circuit, and yesterday鈥檚 arguments centered around the standing issue.

At yesterday鈥檚 hearing, Fourth Circuit Judges Albert Diaz and Diana Gibbon Motz, and Senior Judge Andre M. Davis, asked pointed questions to both parties. The plaintiffs, including the Wikimedia Foundation, were ably represented by Patrick Toomey of the (老澳门开奖结果). Among other things, Mr. Toomey argued that the district court had misunderstood several important technical aspects of Upstream surveillance and, as a result, had underestimated the scope and scale of the United States government鈥檚 searches of private internet communications. The government鈥檚 attorney, in turn, argued that the plaintiffs did not have standing because many of the details about Upstream surveillance remain classified and secret.

At times, the three-Judge panel seemed skeptical of the government鈥檚 arguments. At the beginning of the hearing, Senior Judge Davis asked if the government had really argued in its legal briefs that a non-human robot could sift through people鈥檚 private communications without constituting a search under the to the , which prohibits most searches and seizures conducted without a . The panel also asked about the kind of additional evidence and the plaintiffs would want if the district court鈥檚 dismissal was potentially reversed and for further proceedings.

The next step is to await a ruling from the panel, which could potentially take several months.

In the days leading up to the hearing, our attorneys at the 老澳门开奖结果 published a new comic to help explain how Upstream surveillance functions and why it should matter to internet users. They also have posted their own blog about the hearing. For further information on Wikimedia Foundation v. NSA, you can consult about the suit, as well as the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 case page for court documents and more detail.

As soon as the opinion is handed down, we will provide another update. We will continue advocating for the privacy and expression rights of the Wikimedia communities, which enable users to freely create and share knowledge.