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PRIVACY & CIVIL LIBERTIES OVERSIGHT BOARD

Recommendations Assessment Report

February 5, 2016

INTRODUCTION

In 2014, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (“PCLOB”) issued reports on
the government’s Section 215 and Section 702 surveillance programs. Combined, these
two reports made 22 recommendations to ensure that these programs appropriately
balance national security with privacy and civil liberties.

In January 2015, the PCLOB released an assessment of the status of these
recommendations, which included descriptions of efforts that were being made by the
government to implement them. This document is an update on the status of these PCLOB
recommendations.

All of the PCLOB’s 22 recommendations have been implemented in full or in
part, or the relevant government agency has taken significant steps toward adoption
and implementation.

As a result, since the release of these two reports, important measures have been
taken to enhance the protection of Americans’ privacy and civil liberties and to strengthen
the transparency of the government’s surveillance efforts, without jeopardizing our
counterterrorism efforts.

Implementation of these recommendations is the result of both action on the part of
relevant government agencies and passage of the USA FREEDOM Act, which was enacted in
June, 2015. The USA FREEDOM Act addressed most of the recommendations in PCLOB’s
Section 215 report. In addition, the Administration has been working to implement all of
the recommendations in the Board’s Section 702 report.

The PCLOB is an independent, bipartisan agency within the executive branch,
charged with ensuring that the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism are
balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties. The Board’s analyses of the
Section 215 and 702 programs from a legal and policy perspective informed the Board’s
recommendations. While most of the recommendations were directed at the executive
branch, and in particular, elements of the Intelligence Community, some recommendations
were directed at Congress or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (“FISC” or “FISA

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