Obama's little-noticed gift to the USA on his way out the door, in January 2017.

[sl8]

27. Of course, now the Trump administration has access to this expanded surveillance.

From https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/president-obama-will-soon-turn-over-keys

President Obama Will Soon Turn Over the Keys to the Surveillance State to President-Elect Trump

Ashley Gorski, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project
& Patrick Toomey, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project
November 21, 2016 | 12:15 PM

On January 20, President Obama will hand Donald Trump the keys to the surveillance state. Not only will Trump have the NSA’s incredibly powerful technological tools at his disposal, but he’ll also have the benefit of the overbroad and unconstitutional surveillance authorities embraced by the Obama administration — authorities that give tremendous discretion to executive branch officials.

These spying powers have long been cause for concern because they violate our core rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of association. But when wielded by a man who invited Russia to hack his political opponent, who reportedly eavesdropped on his own hotel guests, and who has called for expanded surveillance of Americans and especially American Muslims, they are all the more frightening. Fortunately, there are several ways to fight back against the surveillance state, including concrete steps you can take to protect yourself and your communications.

Here are two of the sweeping surveillance powers that President Obama is going to hand over to President Trump:

Executive Order 12333 is the primary authority under which the NSA conducts surveillance, and it encompasses a dizzying array of warrantless, high-tech spying programs. While much of this spying occurs outside the United States and is ostensibly directed at foreigners, vast quantities of Americans’ communications are nonetheless vacuumed up in the dragnet. That’s because, in today’s interconnected world, Americans’ communications are frequently sent, routed, or stored abroad — where they may be collected, often in bulk, in the course of the NSA’s spying activities.

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