Secret Rift Over Data Center Fueled Push to Expand Reach of Surveillance Program

Under Section 702, the government may collect, without a warrant and from U.S. companies like Google and AT&T, the communications of foreigners abroad who have been targeted for intelligence or counterterrorism purposes — even when they are communicating with Americans. Enacted in 2008, it legalized a form of the warrantless surveillance program President George W. Bush began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Specifically, after the court that oversees national security surveillance approves the government’s annual requests seeking to renew the program and setting rules for it, the...