A U.S. court has ruled that the FBI conducted improper searches in a database of foreign intelligence, totaling 278,000 times over several years, including on Americans suspected of crimes. The searches were made during U.S. crime investigations, such as the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and protests after the 2020 killing of George Floyd. The database stores digital and other information on individuals, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allows the FBI to search without a warrant communications of foreigners abroad, including their conversations with Americans. The court found that the FBI violated rules around the use of the database, created under Section 702 of the FISA Act with its searches. The FBI believed that the searches were “reasonably likely” to return foreign intelligence or evidence of crime, but the court found that there was “no reasonable basis to expect” this. The ODNI said that the FBI has tightened its procedures in mid-2021 and 2022. The revelations come as U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is trying to garner congressional support to keep surveillance powers under Section 702, which is set to expire later this year.
The United States Justice Department has revealed that the FBI misused the government’s intelligence database in more than 278,000 searches between 2009 and 2017, according to a ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).
In an opinion released on Sunday, FISC accused the FBI of serious missteps and narrow parsing of the law in failing to inform the court about violations made in the intelligence database’s use. While the FBI was found to be in error during its search of the database, FISC stated that none of their searches were found to be intentional or willful.
The intelligence database, referred to as the Section 702 program, allows the government to intercept and monitor digital data, including emails and internet chats, both of which may contain personal information, from foreign targets outside the US. According to the court’s opinion, the FBI conducted a significant number of improper searches and queries in their use of the Section 702 program. The FBI’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) also found that the bureau had failed to properly follow its self-imposed requirements for approving surveillance requests.
The decision from FISC requires all information collected using the program to be purged and the FBI to draw up new rules to prevent such missteps from occurring again. To further prevent such errors, FISC is set to restore its authority to review the FBI’s decisions in the future.
The FBI defended its practices and maintained in a statement that “compliance incidents such as these, though we take them extremely seriously, are a part of the robust oversight process that help us identify potential areas of improvement and take remedial steps.”
The misused intelligence database indicates the government’s need for greater control and updated oversight processes in order to protect citizens’ privacy rights, and to protect the US government from being held negligent in similar cases in the future.
