Last week, the US House of Representatives followed in the footsteps of the Senate earlier this month, and voted to extend the deeply controversial section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Section 702 permits the warrantless surveillance of foreigners by US spy agencies. But past activities undertaken under the besmirched aegis of section 702 are known to have hoovered up the digital data – everyday communications such as emails, and text messages as well as revealing “metadata” about online activity – of millions of Americans as well, in a form of electronic collateral damage.