The FBI has been found to have misused Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) more than 278,000 times between 2020 and early 2021. The law is supposed to allow warrantless snooping on foreign individuals outside America but can sweep up communications with US persons. The Feds were found to have abused the spy law in a "persistent and widespread" manner, according to an unclassified court opinion that detailed hundreds of thousands of violations. Although the law is not supposed to be used for surveilling American citizens, it has historically been used for this purpose without obtaining a warrant.