The NSA relies on Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act to sweep up private data on millions of innocent Americans. Now is our chance to make crucial changes to the law.

For years, the government has relied on Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act for the legal authority to gain access to “business records” and other “tangible things” deemed “relevant” to an international terrorism, counterespionage, or foreign intelligence investigations. The National Security Agency justified one of the most invasive mass surveillance programs using an unreasonable and extremely broad interpretation of this provision. Now, Section 215 and other provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire on December 15, 2019. This is our chance to tell Congress that any reauthorization bill must include provisions that reform Section 215 and other surveillance authorities, ensure greater transparency, and put an end to the legal authority to operate the Call Detail Records (CDR) program.

Despite the fact Congress attempted to significantly narrow the CDR program in 2015, the NSA still went beyond the law on a number of occasions. In response, the NSA itself has said the program has been ended and the equipment decommissioned, yet the Trump administration still intends to push for a permanent reauthorization of this invasive authority. There is also very little transparency concerning the provision. For instance, it is still unclear what exactly constitutes a “business record” or other “tangible things.”

Telephone metadata, a record of who a person called and for how long, may not seem like overly personal information, but it’s capable of revealing much more about a caller than you realize. Patterns of who you call, when, and for how long is more than enough information to make inferences about deeply personal facts and the private relationships. Everyday people call their doctors, STD testing clinics, suicide prevention hotlines, and give tips to journalists— and the national security state should not be compiling hundreds of millions of records of these calls. Also, because the NSA is allowed to collect out to “two hops,” from the initial target— this means it can collect calling patterns for people who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

Now is our chance to end the legal authority for this unnecessary and invasive program. Tell your elected officials they should end the Call Detail Records program and they shouldn’t support any 215 reauthorization bill that does.