The number of times the National Security Agency identified American persons or entities in intelligence reports containing information from high-profile warrantless surveillance programs last year has nearly tripled since 2022, the government said Tuesday. I made it.
The jump to more than 31,300 so-called unmaskings was due to foreign hackers attempting to break into critical infrastructure computer systems, rather than individuals, officials said. In particular, a single intelligence report last year identified “a large number” of U.S. companies that hackers were potentially attempting to compromise, the report said.
The report is the latest in a series of surveillance statistics released each spring by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, providing some transparency into how intelligence agencies use electronic spying power. .
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) generally requires a warrant for national security wiretapping on U.S. soil. The exception is a provision of the law known as Section 702, which allows the government to collect messages and data from U.S. companies like Google and AT&T from foreigners abroad, even when they are communicating with Americans, without a warrant. It is permitted to do so.
The Section 702 program has sparked intense controversy since it was enacted by Congress in 2008 to legalize a type of warrantless surveillance program that the Bush administration secretly began after the Sept. 11 attacks. This month, Congress extended Section 702 for two years after a bitter political battle disrupted the usual partisan coalition of supporters and skeptics of the plan in both parties.
In recent years, FBI officials have repeatedly conducted raids using identifying information of Americans, such as email addresses, only to later say the raids lacked sufficient legitimacy or were too broad. was found to have violated standards for such queries against the Intercept Information Repository. . Questionable searches include searches using identifying information for members of Congress, Black Lives Matter protesters, and suspects in the January 6th Capitol riot.
The bill extending the program placed a number of restrictions on the FBI’s ability to use the program, among other things. However, these changes were too recent to be reflected in the report. Still, many of the new restrictions were codified in legislative changes introduced by the FBI in 2021.
In March 2023, the Biden administration was touting how the number of U.S. identifiers the FBI was using as search terms had decreased after the agency made changes. And a new report shows that trend continues. There was a sharp increase in what was identified in intelligence reports.
Specifically, the government roughly estimates that between December 2000 and November 2021, the FBI used more than 2.9 million U.S. identifiers as search terms in the Section 702 database. That number fell to about 119,383 in the year to November 2022. In his year, which ended last November, the number rose again to about 57,094. (Due to the complexity of the FBI system, these estimates are overstated.)
The report says that the FBI did not open regular criminal investigations against Americans last year based on information collected using Section 702, but that FBI agents did not open regular criminal investigations of Americans based on information collected using Section 702, but that FBI agents did not open regular criminal investigations of Americans based on information collected using Section 702. We clarified how often the results of information inquiries were accessed. The purpose of investigating potential ordinary crimes unrelated to national security investigations.
For example, in the 12 months ending in November 2022, FBI officials were forced to examine information that came up in response to searches for information about Americans 43 times, while scrutinizing common crimes. This has been revised upward by 27 points from last year’s report after the audit found additional cases. It was held 21 times in the year up to November last year.
Most of the 29 cases in 2022 and 17 cases last year were internal because they were essentially fishing expeditions by investigators who lacked sufficient reason to believe in advance that relevant evidence might be found. Failure to comply with restrictions.
Privacy advocates cite the FBI’s mistakes when the government searches for information on large influxes of Americans without a warrant and argue that the agency must obtain court orders for such inquiries. There is. National security officials strongly oppose such proposals, saying they would undermine the program’s effectiveness. A proposal to add such restrictions to the Section 702 extension bill failed in the House this month by a tie vote.
