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Discussion of Status:

The NSA has advised the Board that for categories 9(4) and 9(5), as part of its reporting
under the USA FREEDOM Act, the NSA will report statistics that are substantially similar to
those requested by the Board. The NSA already reports similar statistics in classified
reports to Congress (which the Board reviewed during its Section 702 inquiry), and the
NSA has now agreed to make these numbers publicly available.

Specifically, for category 9(4), the Board had recommended that the NSA report “the
number of queries performed that employ U.S. person identifiers, specifically
distinguishing the number of such queries that include names, titles, or other identifiers
potentially associated with individuals.” The Justice Department already reports to
Congress, in a classified semiannual report required by FISA, the number of metadata
queries that use a U.S. person identifier, and also the number of U.S. person identifiers
approved for content queries. The NSA will report these numbers publicly as part of its USA
FREEDOM Act reporting, although it will not separately break out the number of such
queries that include names, titles, or other identifiers potentially associated with
individuals as described in subpart (4) of the Board’s recommendation.

For category 9(5), the Board had recommended that the NSA report “the number of
instances in which the NSA disseminates non-public information about U.S. persons,
specifically distinguishing disseminations that includes names, titles, or other identifiers
potentially associated with individuals.” As required by FISA, the NSA Director and NSA
Inspector General already report to Congress, in classified annual reports, the number of
disseminated NSA intelligence reports that refer to a U.S. person identity and the number of
U.S. person identities released by the NSA in response to requests for identities that were
not referred to by name or title in the original reporting. The NSA advises the Board that it
also plans to declassify and publicly report these numbers as part of its USA FREEDOM Act
reporting, although again, it will not separately break out the number of such queries that
include names, titles, or other identifiers potentially associated with individuals as
described in subpart (5) of the Board’s recommendation.

The Board had recommended in subparts (1), (2), and (3) that the NSA report “(1) the
number of telephone communications acquired in which one caller is located in the United
States; (2) the number of Internet communications acquired through upstream collection
that originate or terminate in the United States; (3) the number of communications of or
concerning U.S. persons that the NSA positively identifies as such in the routine course of
its work.” With regard to those subparts of the Board’s recommendation, the NSA has
informed the Board that it has considered various approaches and has confronted a variety
of challenges. However, the NSA has advised that it remains committed to developing and
implementing measures that will, in the language of the Board’s recommendation, “provide
insight about the extent to which the NSA acquires and utilizes” communications involving

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