The report, required annually, comes as Congress weighs reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), set to expire this December.
Section 702 allows for the warrantless surveillance of foreign nationals outside the United States, even as they communicate with U.S. citizens on domestic soil. It’s a feature that many fear allows intelligence agencies to keep tabs on U.S. citizens without securing a warrant.
The FBI spied on more than 246,000 foreign nationals using the tool, about a 6 percent increase from roughly 232,000 the year before.
The number of Americans impacted by those searches plummeted, from 2.9 million last year to 119,000 this year.
The FBI attributes the decline to a shift in its practices, including requiring agents to “opt in” to searching the 702 database and requiring attorney approval when running a batch of more than 100 queries.
It’s a factor Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a leader in the reauthorization effort, called “evidence of a real tightening up on the part of the FBI on the most controversial aspect of 702.”
“It shows that they’ve taken what was a pretty blunt instrument, the mechanics of making a query, and made it much more targeted and specific,” he told The Hill.
“I think it’s evidence of very good progress. I don’t think it gets us over the reauthorization line. I think there’s still a conversation to be had about the fact that U.S. person data is queried,” he said.
But the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the data shows the process should be reformed to require a warrant.
Section 702 often faces a difficult path to reauthorization every five years, but this year may be more so, with critics on the right and the left already expressing hesitation.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
