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Suffragists in England. Young girl as placard bearer during suffragist demonstration. Placard depicts political cartoon with the caption: "Mrs. Bull: We should get on better, John, if I rode a horse of my own." Illustration on the placard depicts a woman riding behind a man on a horse that is labeled "men's enfranchisement."

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A protest against child labor during the Labor Day Parade in New York City, 1st May 1909. Two protesters wear sashes bearing slogans in English, and in Yiddish.

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Marchers protest cave-in tragedy. Six-year-old Dolores Siat (of 714 Grand Avenue, Brooklyn) holds placard as she marches along with her mother (background) in neighborhood protest demonstration, June 13. The mother's march was a "show of compassion" demonstration after six children were killed in a cave-in while playing in a deep excavation in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

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Sixteen black children accompanied by four mothers carry signs demonstrating their feelings as they walk to Webster School in Hillsboro, Ohio, April 3, after the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered immediate integration at the school April 2. The children were turned away again as they had been every day for two years. The school board said that it was awaiting official notification of the Supreme Court's decision before taking any action.

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Close-up of a young girl as she holds hands with a woman during the Selma to Montgomery marches held in support of voter rights, Alabama, late March, 1965.

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Little girl protesting against the pollution outside the prime minister's house in London on October 18, 1978.

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An anti-nuclear rally in New York City, 12 June 1982. A child wears a sign reading, "You can't hug your kids with nuclear arms."

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A girl holding a placard for women's rights at a Labor Day parade in New York City, September 1982.

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Unidentified young Myanmar girl holds a photo of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok on 13 August demanding the release of 18 foreign activists held in Myanmar. Exiled Myanmar groups and Thai students keep up their vigil as Aung San Suu Kyi continues the second day of a new roadside confrontationwith the authorities who have prevented her from traveling to meet with supporters.

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Mexican children demonstrate for peace on January 13, 1994, on the streets of San Cristbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. The march was organized by peace and human rights groups. By January 12, with public and international opinion strongly against the fighting, President Carlos Salinas declared a unilateral cease-fire and called on the Zapatistas to lay down their arms and negotiate with the newly formed Commission for Peace and Reconciliation. Peace talks beganon February 21, in San Cristbal de las Casas.

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A little girl sitting on her father's shoulders holds a placard in protest of French scheduled nuclear testing in the Pacific atoll of Mururoa, in Lima, Peru, 14 July. Some 1,000people staged the protest in front of the French embassy on Bastille Day.

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A Russian girl holding an icon takes part in a protest rally at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, Wednesday, July 1, 1998. Some 100 people demonstrated at the embassy protesting U.S. and NATO pressure on Yugoslavia over Kosovo.

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A young girl demonstrates outside the Strasbourg's education authority to protest against the ban on the Islamic headscarf and other "conspicuous" religious insignia in state schools 1 September 2004. The law on headscarf is due to come into force 2 September at the start of the academic year. Placard reads: "School is my right, headscarf my choice."

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A Pakistani girl displays a placard as she stands in front of a replica of the Chagai mountain, where Pakistan had test fired their first nuclear weapon in 28 May 1998, during a demonstration organized by the Citizen Peace Committee (CPC), a non-government organization, in Islamabad, 28 May 2005. CPC organized the demonstration as a part of their anti-nuclear campaign and demanded the Indian and Pakistani government to stop testing nuclear-capable missiles and avert displaying their nuclear might.

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A young girl holds a poster representing the five Olympic rings as she joins various groups in a march from the Peace Memorial Park to downtown in the southern Japanese city of Hiroshima on March 26, 2008 calling on China to end its crackdown on the recent demonstrations in Tibet. China stepped up pressure to isolate the Dalai Lama on March 26 opposing talks between the Tibetan spiritual leader and French officials during his proposed trip to France in August.

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A young girl smiles beneath a Buddhist stupa in the glow of thousands of butter lamps at a candlelight peace protest and prayer ceremony for those recently killed during the recent Chinese crackdown in Tibet, March 23, 2008 in Kathmandu, Nepal. According to Human Rights Watch 461 people, including 11 members of Amnesty International, were detained by Nepali police at various Tibetan protests throughout the capital March 24, 2008.

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A young child holds up a banner as people gather to rally against racism ahead of a planned anti-immigration and anti-Islam protest, in Melbourne on April 9, 2010. Several hundred anti-racism protesters gathered on the steps of Flinders Street Station to confront the anti-immigration and anti-Islam protest which did not eventuate.

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Two girls with Occupy Wall Street movement hold up signs at Zuccotti Park where hundreds of protesters have been living for weeks in Lower Manhattan on Friday, October 14, 2011. This morning a planned eviction by the city was postponed avoiding a confrontation with the police.

A young girl waves an open bird cage as Tunisian women demonstrate for their rights on November 2, 2011 in the Kasbah of Tunis. Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist party that won Tunisia's elections, on October 28, 2011 reaffirmed Ennahda's "commitment to the women of Tunisia," pledging to uphold their social gains. But some have voiced concern that the party, which took 41 percent of the assembly, would seek to curb women's rights in an Arab country known for its progressive approach to gender equality.

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A child paints during a demonstration organized by the gay rights group Fundacin Tringulo in Madrid on August 20, 2011. Thousands of protesters marched in central Madrid late August 19, 2011 to protest a visit by Pope Benedict XVI and police violence during previous demonstrations, as the pontiff presided over a service a few hundred meters away.

Afghan students pray for the early recovery of Pakistani child activist, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head in a Taliban assassination attempt, during a rally in Herat on Oct 13, 2012. Schools in Afghanistan opened with special prayers for the quick recovery of Yousafzai, in a move officials said was to show solidarity with her.

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A young girl holds out her parents' wedding rings during an anti-gay rally in Kiev on May 14, 2013. Several hundred anti-gay protesters rallied outside the Verkhovna Rada parliament building and in front of Kiev city administration protesting against the parliament's voting on a bill that would have barred employers from rejecting workers based on their sexual orientation and against plans by gay rights activists to hold a gay parade in Kiev on May 25.

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A girl holds a placard reading, "On Romanian land I don't want to be poisoned" during a demonstration in Bucharest against the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), a Canadian gold mine project using cyanide, on September 15, 2013. People from 27 cities around Romania took to the streets to protest against plans by the Canadian company to open Europe's largest goldmine in a Transylvanian village. Canadian company Gabriel Resources hopes to extract 300 tons of gold using thousands of tons of cyanide in Rosia Montana, a picturesque village in the Carpathian mountains. The government recently adopted a bill clearing the way for the open cast mine.

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People demonstrate in Washington on July 20, 2013, one week after the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Civil rights groups mobilized for protests in cities across the United States on Saturday amid charged emotions over the not-guilty verdict in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. The demonstrations, which began in Miami, came a day after U.S. President Barack Obama publicly identified with the slain 17-year-old and the deep frustrations felt among African-Americans over the verdict.

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A little Syrian girl holds a picture which shows refugees on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea. Syrian refugees who have fled from the Syrian civil war to Greece protested in Athens against their treatment by the Greek state and called for a solution for the Syrians.

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This picture taken on October 1, 2014 shows a young girl holding a placard during Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests. Hong Kong's student-led democracy rallies have highlighted a stark divide between a disenfranchised younger generation who say they have little to lose, and an older guard who favor pragmatism over protest.

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Young girl holds sign during demonstration at the Ferguson police station on August 23, 2014.

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A girl throws a pair of shoes on a pyramid of shoes on September 20, 2014, in Lyon, central France, during the annual demonstration by NGO Handicap International to denounce the use and sale of anti-personnel landmines.

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A girl on a rainbow crossing created in chalk by protesters during a rally for marriage equality at Sydney Town Hall on August 9, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. They are specifically calling on the government to pass a Marriage Equality bill in parliament to allow full marriage rights for LGBTIQ people in Australia.

A girl under the auspices of Chibok Girls Ambassadors marches to press for the release of 219 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram Islamists during a demonstration at ministry of education in Abuja, on April 14, 2015. Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari cautioned he could not make promises on the return of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, as the country marked the first anniversary of their abduction.

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A little girl holds a placard at Bara Imambara to protest against ISIS on November 20, 2015 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The protest was led by Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad in Lucknow.

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A girl holding a cross during a candlelight vigil and protest against the gang rape of a 72-year-old nun at a convent school on March 16, 2015 in Kolkata, India. On Saturday, around a dozen suspected dacoits entered the Convent of Jesus and Mary and gang raped the 72-year-old. Eight people have been detained in connection with the case after police officials released CCTV footage of the perpetrators.

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A girl marches hand in hand with other demonstrators during a protest against the latest round of public transportation fare hikes in Sao Paulo, Brazil on January 27, 2015. The prices of bus, subway and train tickets rose from 3 to 3.50 reais on January 6.

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XyNazia Skinner, age 7, of Flint, Michigan, stands with a sign while waiting to participate in a national mile-long march to highlight the push for clean water in Flint, February 19, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. The march was organized in part by Rev. Jesse Jackson.

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Nimani Darch-Walker, 3, wearing a sign that reads "Don't Shoot," looks on during a rally by the Black Lives Matter movement at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, California on July 8, 2016. About 1,000 people marched along Market Street to City Hall to denounce recent police shootings around the country.

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A young girl holds a small placard reading "I Can't Drink Oil" as she stands with demonstrators that gathered in front of the White House in Washington, DC on September 13, 2016, to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. The U.S. government on September 9, 2016 sought to stop work on a controversial oil pipeline in North Dakota that has angered Native Americans, blocking any work on federal land and asking the company to "voluntarily pause" work nearby.

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A Syrian girl holds a placard during a rally in solidarity with Aleppo, in the Lebanese northern port city of Tripoli, on May 1, 2016. More than a week of fighting in Syria's second city has killed hundreds of civilians and left a UN-backed peace process hanging by a thread. Concern has been growing that the fighting in Aleppo will lead to the complete collapse of a landmark ceasefire between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebels that was brokered by Moscow and Washington.

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A girl with her mouth taped with black tape takes part in a demonstration to protest Assad regime forces and its supporters' attacks on civilians and the humanitarian plight in Aleppo, in Brussels, Belgium on December 18, 2016.

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A young girl and boy hold signs near the Yoyogi Park before the march to protest against the U.S. President Trump's executive order on immigration in Shibuya district on February 12, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. Nearly 300 people participated in the march organized by the Alliance for an Inclusive America to protest against Trump's executive order banning the immigration to the United States from several Muslim majority countries. Japanese Prime Minister Abe is currently visiting the United States for his first meeting with President Trump.

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A young girl with a sign at a protest march and rally organized by the Alliance for an Inclusive America group against the perceived anti-Muslim and anti-foreigner immigration policies of President Donald Trump, on February 12, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. The Alliance of an Inclusive America is a multi-faith non-partisan group. About 250 Americans, other ex-pats and Japanese people took part in the march to show people around the world they reject the Executive Order President Trump enacted at the end of January, indefinitely suspending the resettlement of Syrian refugees and temporarily banning people from seven majority Muslim countries from entering the United States.

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A girl holds a placard during a protest for Dignity of Farmers and Farmworkers in Barcelona, Spain on January 28, 2017. More than 500 tractors took part in the demonstration of the union of farmers Uni de Pagesos (Farmers Union) in the streets of Barcelona, demanding a new relationship between farmers and the society Barcelona.

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A young girl joins as demonstrators at Philadelphia International Airport protest against the executive order that President Donald Trump signed clamping down on refugee admissions and temporarily restricting travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries on January 29, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Demonstrators gathered at airports across the country in protest of the order.

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Tens of thousands of health workers, activists and members of the public protested against austerity and cuts in the NHS (National Health Service). A young smiling girl holds a placard she made which says, "Think of me, keep it free; save our NHS."

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A girl holds a placard as she takes part in a protest against the planned Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota on March 04, 2017 in New York.

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A girl carries a sign in the Immigrants Make America Great March to protest actions being taken by the Trump administration on February 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Protesters are calling for an end to stepped up ICE raids and deportations, and that health care be provided for documented and undocumented people.

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Thousands of demonstrators attend a rally for International Women's Day on March 8, 2017, in Melbourne, Australia. Marchers were calling for de-colonization of Australia, an end to racism, economic justice for all women and reproductive justice, as well as supporting the struggle for the liberation of all women around the world, inclusive of trans women and sex workers.

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46 Powerful Photos Of Girls Protesting Around The Globe Throughout History - Huffington Post

Curatio, a social networking platform for patients, launched Wednesday. (Curatio Photo)

For peoplestruggling with a disease or a chronic health condition, more than just their physical health is at stake. These experiences can also take a toll on patients mental and emotionalhealth, and those can have a huge impact on how well a patient deals with their condition.

Thats somethingLynda Brown-Ganzert learned first hand when she struggled with fertility and a complicated pregnancy.

It was really isolating, and really difficult to find what I needed, she told GeekWire.

Brown-Ganzert had spent her entire career in digital media, but she found herself struggling to find resources on hercondition and connect tosocial support from other patients.

She thought to herself, woah, wait a minute. Ive worked in tech my entire life if Im not able to find this easily, what about folks that are notlike me?

In 2013, Brown-Ganzert teamed up with developer and entrepreneurAlireza Davoodi to found Curatio, a social networking platform for patients looking to connect with each other and with trusted health information. The platform officially launches today, andBrown-Ganzert said she hopes it will help patients around the world improve their physical health by improving their social and emotional health.

The platform relies on machine learning for its two main purposes: connecting users with each other to help form social support, and connecting patients with validated information about their condition. It can also be used by caregivers of patients.

Unlike other online resources, such as Facebook support groups, Curatio is also designed to protect patient privacy and ensure the content they are accessing has been validated by medical experts.

Brown-Ganzert said Curatios services fills a huge hole in the patient experience.

There are plenty of casual support groups out there, but what we havent seen is that type of proprietary matchmaking that weve built both matching people to people and people to content along with some of our initial work in AI, she said. I think its pretty exciting in terms of democratizing healthcare, so that you can come into a platform like Curatio and have the type of concierge service where we can help you find people you relate to and content, all on a private platform.

Curatios combination of privacy and personalization is its secret sauce, and studies of the platforms first users show that it has a real impact on patient health. A clinical study found that 75 percent of Curatios initial users were already showing improved health behaviors and 80 percent showed increased interest in personal health management.

Brown-Ganzert said the startup is also considering expanding the platform to be used for other communities, like those with mental health and the LGBT community. The company is also taking part in the Canadian Institutes of Health ResearchseHealth Innovations Partnership Program.

The startup has raised $1.5 million in investments so far, she said, andeven went on Dragons Den last week, receiving offers from all of the investment shows star judges.Curatio is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., with about a dozen employees based in that office and around the world.

Curatio will be licensed to healthcare providersand is free for patients to use. It is currently available as a web application and on iOS and will launch on Android devices soon.

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Curatio aims to improve health through first-ever social network for ... - GeekWire

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Microsoft social network, Socl, is set to shut down by the end of the month.

Microsoft has announced that it will be permanently shutting down its social networking service, Socl, next week.

Socl, developed by FUSE Labs, will cease to be on March 15th, according to a blog post on the much forgotten social networking site.

The social network was launched in 2011 and was designed to be a collaboration tool as opposed to a communication platform. Initially targeted towards students, before a wider roll out, the platform allowed users to share creative content such as picture collages or short videos in a method not dissimilar from Pintrest.

In a farewell blog post the social network said: Soclhas been a wonderful outlet for creative expression, as well as aplace to enjoy a supportive community of like-minded people, sharing and learning together. In supporting you, Socls unique community of creators, we have learned invaluable lessons in what it takes to establish and maintain community as well as introduce novel new ways to make, share and collectdigital stuff welove.

When details of the service first emerged in 2011 many believed it would be a competitor to Facebook as many large tech companies, seeing the potential of facebook, began dabbling in social networking, such as Google with its Google Buzz platform in 2010.

The social networking site fell into relative obscurity after failing to gain significant traction among its audience. One of the more bizarre features of the system is that it required a Facebook login to use the service, essentially making it a Facebook add-on.

After 6 years, 5 years longer than Google Buzz, the social network will go offline permanently next week.

The blog post ended on an optimistic note that said: From the very beginning, weve been amazed by your creativity, openness, and positivity. Thank you so very much for sharing your inspirations with us.

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Anti Socl Microsoft kills social network - Computer Business Review

Parentune.com, an online social networking platform for parents, has announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount in its second round of funding from existing investor Kae Capital Management (P) Ltd.

Along with Kae Capital, the funding round also saw participationfrom Singapore-based Segnel Ventures Pte Ltd. The capital raised would be utilized to upgrade technology and launch the network in Hindi and other regional languages.

The company has not revealed any financial details of this round. Prior to this round, the start-up had secured around $500,000 in funding in 2014 from early-stage venture capital firm Kae Capital.

Talking about this investment, Nitin Pandey, founder of Parentune.com said,

We have raised this round of funding to continue building a highly personalized support (platform) for parents, with technology, data and intelligence at the centre of Parentunes scale-up.

Founded in November 2012, Parentune is an online community of parents for real-time advice and support through its website, mobile site, and app. The platform helps parents connect with like-minded parents, access useful applications, and find relevant information validated by fellow parents or experts.

The start-up claims that each parent on Parentune is verified and has real-time access to personalized content and support relevant to their childs age. It also claims more than 3 million sessions take place every month across its website, mobile website and the app. The company recently crossed the one million verified parents milestone.

Further, as per the company, the Parentune Mobile App is growing at a pace of over 50% month-on-month, mainly through parents referrals and word-of-mouth on social media. The app is spearheading the companys growth and has a user engagement of over 9-10 minutes per session.

In recent times, many startups have launched a social networking platform targeted towards parents. Last year,BabyChakra raised Series A funding to enhance its social parenting platform. Other such platforms, such as Parentlane and Tinystep, have also raised funding for expanding their technology and operations.

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Parentune, social network for parents, raises funding from Kae Capital and Segnel Ventures - The Tech Portal

(TNS) -- WASHINGTON Nearly four years after National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden blew the lid off domestic spying, the vast surveillance programs cherished as the crown jewels of the U.S. intelligence establishment are about to spring back into public debate and not just because of Donald Trumps allegation that hes been the subject of wiretaps.

The legal framework for some of the broadest U.S. surveillance programs, authorized for a five-year period in 2012, will expire Dec. 31 unless Congress reauthorizes it. Already, the debate about those programs has begun, with members of the Senate Intelligence Committee focused on finding an answer to a simple question: How many Americans have emails, text messages and telephone conversations picked up in the governments electronic sweep?

Is it a few thousand? Or is it a lot higher?

We need that number, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told Dan Coats, Trumps nominee to serve as director of national intelligence, at a confirmation hearing Feb. 28. We have sought it for years and years. More and more Americans are getting swept up in these searches.

Wyden pressed Coats on whether he would nail down a number. Coats hedged.

It has been extremely hard to come up with that number for various reasons which I dont fully understand, said Coats, a former member of the Intelligence Committee now weighing his nomination. I will do my best to work to try to find out if we can get that number, but I need first to talk find out about why we cant get it.

Trumps allegation that President Barack Obama ordered his phones tapped last fall, a claim for which he has offered no evidence, has little to do with the coming debate. But it is an indication of the sensitivities surrounding surveillance practices that do not cleave easily along party lines.

While the issue is often cast as a balance of privacy vs. national security, many Republicans, especially those with libertarian streaks, are troubled by what they see as invasive practices. And many Democrats offer strong support of the intelligence community.

At a separate hearing before a House of Representatives committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who earns a perfect score from the American Conservative Union, read incredulously a response he had gotten to his official query to the U.S. intelligence director in which he was told it would be difficult if not impossible to calculate the number of Americans whose communications are intercepted.

That seems like baloney to me, Jordan said. Were talking about the greatest intelligence service on the planet. Youd think they would be able to know that, right?

Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat far to Jordans political left, said, The government can, and does, collect massive amounts of information about our citizens under this authority.

At hearings, Snowdens name hardly arises. But few doubt that his revelations in 2013 helped mold the current debate. Worldwide, Snowden is seen from sharply distinct angles traitor and villain, or global celebrity for data privacy. From his exile in Moscow, where he fled after spilling the secrets, Snowden continues to cast a long shadow.

It was his disclosures that let Americans and people around the world learn of NSA programs like PRISM, Dishfire and XKeyscore, which, respectively, allowed for the monitoring of electronic data retrieved from nine large tech companies, grabbed 200 million text messages a day and saw nearly everything a targeted user did on the internet.

Leaders of allied nations like Germany and Brazil bristled when they learned from Snowdens disclosures that their officials were among dozens of leaders tapped by the NSA.

Much of the bulk collection of data by the NSA was rolled back or halted in 2015 under the USA Freedom Act.

On Capitol Hill, Snowdens name is sometimes uttered with revulsion mixed with recognition that his actions accelerated change.

What he exposed, Im glad that we learned about it. It allowed us to make reforms that were necessary, said Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. But the way that he did it was so reckless. He exposed information that put our troops at risk and hurt important relationships with our allies.

Trump called Snowden a terrible traitor in a 2013 television interview and suggested he should be executed.

Digital rights activists credit Snowden with forcing major intelligence agencies to talk more openly about surveillance.

What Snowden did was enable the debate and provide more disclosures by the intelligence community when it saw the debate move in a direction it didnt like, said Gregory T. Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington research group that advocates for an open and free internet.

Civil rights activists voice concern over what they describe as gaps in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides the legal framework for the NSA to monitor non-U.S. persons without warrants.

As of 2015, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that 94,368 foreigners or entities abroad were targets of U.S. surveillance for intelligence purposes. The NSA is presumed to vacuum up hundreds of millions of electronic communications a year from those foreign targets, including any they may have had with Americans.

The impact is actually much greater than 94,000 because each of these individuals talks to potentially hundreds of people, said Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

How many Americans have their communications monitored in so-called incidental collection remains a guess. In the House hearing last week, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, pressed Elizabeth Goitein, an expert on surveillance at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, for an estimate.

If you conservatively assume that even 1 out of 100 of every foreign targets communications was with an American that would still be millions of American communications, Goitein said.

Pressed further at another point, Goitein said: I had said millions earlier, which I think is conservative. Potentially tens of millions. I dont know. I really hesitate to speculate.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act regulations require the NSA, CIA and FBI all of which have access to the database of collected communications to minimize information about U.S. citizens or green card holders when it is incidentally swept up.

But the databases are widely available one report on how the FBI handles searches of the databases monitored use in 13 FBI field offices and agents in those offices can query the databases even when they have no suspicion of wrongdoing, said David Medine, who until July 1 was chair of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board, a bipartisan watchdog that seeks to ensure government compliance with privacy and civil liberties rules.

They are just sort of entitled to poke around and see if something is going on, Medine told a Senate panel in May.

Critics of Section 702 say that sort of backdoor search allows authorities to snoop on citizens without having to show probable cause and obtain constitutionally required warrants.

You have this authority, and the government says the goal is national security and to help us prevent terrorism. The reality is that they can collect information that has no connection to terrorism, national security or weapons of mass destruction, Guliani said.

Defenders of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance said they hoped legislators reauthorized its use. They say evidence of abuse is minimal.

Throughout my time at NSA, I routinely saw analysts self-report if they ran an improper query, April Doss, a former assistant general counsel at the agency, wrote in her submitted testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on March 1.

Auditors review logs for signs of improper queries, Doss said in an interview, calling existing laws robust and effective and noting the oversight of three branches of government.

Doss and other supporters of the status quo make an unusual argument: Simply trying to satisfy legislators who want to know how many U.S. citizens turn up in the electronic sweeping would require the NSA to act intrusively, would divert analysts from hunting terrorists and would possibly even break the law by actively tracking the Americans they find, raising new privacy concerns.

It would prompt intelligence analysts to look for communications that they would not otherwise see, communications that have no intelligence value, Doss said.

For his part, Swalwell, the California legislator, said convincing the citizenry that surveillance was being done properly was vital to the health of the intelligence community.

The more transparent we are about 702, the better, he said. When Americans understand how their government is protecting them, theyre more willing, I think, to go along with whats necessary to keep us safe.

2017 McClatchy Washington Bureau Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Controversial NSA Surveillance Programs Up for Renewal at Year's ... - Government Technology