Progressive Politics

Under an amendment adopted as part of RISAA, the government could, in effect, require American businesses, including individuals such as journalists, with no role in providing communications services, to assist with National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance. source

Under an amendment adopted as part of RISAA, the government could conscript into service a wide range of other types of service providers who merely have access to the equipment (e.g., a router) on which communications transit. Although the amendment exempts hotels, libraries, restaurants, and a handful of other types of establishments, an enormous range of businesses would still be fair game, including grocery stores, department stores, hardware stores, laundromats, barber shops, fitness centers, and — perhaps most disturbingly — commercial landlords that rent out the office space where tens of millions of Americans go to work every day, including news media headquarters, political campaign offices, advocacy and grassroots organizations, lobbying firms, and law offices. Because these businesses might lack the ability to segregate out particular communications, they could be forced to give the government access to entire communications streams, including vast volumes of purely domestic communications — trusting the NSA to extract and retain only communications to and from targets. source