Events and Press

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) on Thursday released its 2026 Report on the Surveillance Program Operated Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The staff report concludes that Section 702 remains one of the country’s most valuable tools for countering an array of critical foreign threats, and that the reforms implemented since 2023 are having positive privacy and civil liberties effects.

Board Member Beth Williams has published an op-ed urging Congress to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

On January 30, 2026, Board Member Beth A. Williams addressed National Security Agency staff to mark NSA’s Data Privacy & Protection Day and discuss how PCLOB’s work relates to NSA’s mission. Member Williams emphasized how the Board’s work and NSA’s compliance work operate together to build and maintain public trust in the Intelligence Community.

Board Member Beth Williams has published an op-ed discussing how the 25^th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is an opportunity to evaluate how America has fared in its fight against terrorism and where the country should focus its efforts going forward.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Board (PCLOB) held a public forum on Tuesday, December 2^nd on debanking and the risks to privacy and civil liberties.

Ambassador Sam Brownback will deliver keynote remarks for PCLOB’s December 2^nd virtual public forum examining how debanking and other financial tools used by the government to fight terrorism may impact Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has released a staff report which is the first comprehensive government examination of the FBI’s use of open source information in support of its counterterrorism efforts. Among other things, the report describes the specific open source tools employed by the FBI, and the policies and privacy protections governing the use of those tools.

PCLOB will be conducting a virtual public forum on December 2nd, 2025 on the role of debanking in counterterrorism and related national security programs. PCLOB seeks public comments both in advance of and following the forum to help inform future agency deliberations. Additional details can be found here: 

Federal Register : Notice of a PCLOB Public Forum on Debanking and the Risks to Privacy and Civil Liberties and Request for Public Comment

Last year, PCLOB issued a statement expressing our intent to issue a report in 2025 focusing on the redress procedures in the event that there were no qualifying complaints. Because there is now a qualifying complaint, PCLOB intends to publish the results of its redress review consistent with Section 3(e)(i) of the Executive Order as soon as practicable upon completion of the redress process.

PCLOB will hold a virtual public forum on Tuesday, December 2^nd to discuss how financial tools historically used by the government to fight terrorism may now be impacting Americans’ privacy and civil liberties