Privacy Oversight Board Releases Report on EO 12333

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board released its report on Executive Order 12333, which provides broad legal authority for data collection. The Oversight Board conducted three deep-dives into 12333-related counterterrorism activities—two on classified CIA programs and one on NSA’s XKEYSCORE. XKEYSCORE is a tool used to search data collected under Executive Order 12333 that was revealed by the Snowden revelations. The report lacks specifics on the 12333 programs the Board reviewed, but according to the Board the focus was on programs that either likely collected US persons information, targeted US persons, or occurred in the US. The report also does not indicate the specific advice or recommendations the Board provided, but it does reveal that many intelligence agencies were using guidelines to protect US persons that had not been updated since the 1980s or were never implemented as required by 12333. EPIC previously urged the Oversight Board to conduct a review of 12333.