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Discussion of Status:

As part of the annual certification process for the Section 702 program, the government
submitted revised NSA and CIA minimization procedures for approval by the FISC. These
revised procedures included changes designed to address Recommendation 3 of the
Board’s Section 702 report. The court approved these revised procedures as part of the
annual certification process.

The Board agrees that the changes in the minimization procedures implement the Board’s
recommendation.

The status of the CIA metadata queries remains the same as reported in the Board’s
Recommendations Assessment Report of January 2015, namely with respect to the CIA’s
metadata queries using U.S. person identifiers, the CIA accepted and plans to implement
this recommendation as it refines internal processes for data management. Thus, the CIA’s
new minimization procedures do not reflect changes to implement this recommendation
with regard to metadata queries.

Recommendation 4: Provide the FISC with Documentation of Section
702 Targeting Decisions and U.S. Person Queries

Status:

Substantially implemented

Text of the Board’s Recommendation:

To assist in the FISA court’s consideration of the government’s periodic Section 702
certification applications, the government should submit with those applications a random
sample of tasking sheets and a random sample of the NSA’s and CIA’s U.S. person query
terms, with supporting documentation. The sample size and methodology should be
approved by the FISA court.

Explanation for the Recommendation:
Providing a random sample of targeting decisions would allow the FISC to take a
retrospective look at the targets selected over the course of a recent period of time. The

data could help inform the FISA court’s review process by providing some insight into
whether the government is, in fact, satisfying the “foreignness” and “foreign intelligence
purpose” requirements, and it could signal to the court that changes to the targeting
procedures may be needed, or prompt inquiry into that question. The data could provide
verification that the government’s representations during the previous certification
approval were accurate, and it could supply the FISC with more information to use in

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