Federal Surveillance Tools at Issue in ACLU Lawsuit

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The American Civil Liberties Union will be in federal court Tuesday as it seeks to force the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal agencies to detail how often they use surveillance tools that capture the email addresses contacted, phone numbers called and websites visited by a person.

Such tools are known as pen register and trace-and-track technology, and while the government believes they're critical for law enforcement, privacy advocates are concerned about the lack of transparency on how often the searches are used.