The majority of American people are not “domestic terrorists,” yet we’re all (potentially) treated as such. The Patriot Act was grafted onto the preexisting Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (better known as FISA), which was passed in 1978 to help the government gather foreign intelligence and investigate international terrorism. It applied only to an “agent of a foreign power” and information gathering was limited to “common carriers,” or hotel stays, storage lockers and car rental services, the EFF notes.
