Events and Press
The Board Votes to Conclude its DHS Data Framework Oversight Project
The Board has voted to conclude its DHS Data Framework oversight project. When the Board initiated the project in 2017, the Data Framework contained sensitive data and was intended to enable users to conduct classified queries for counterterrorism purposes. Since then, however, the Data Framework has evolved significantly. It has now transitioned to the DHS Data Services Branch (DSB), where it will be used for purposes unrelated to counterterrorism. DHS has conveyed to the Board that as part of this transition, DHS deleted all previously ingested data and that screening and vetting activity have ceased.
The Board retains the authority to resume this oversight project should the DSB develop any nexus to counterterrorism activity in the future.
FISA Oversight Public Forum
The Board held a June 24, 2020 virtual public forum as part of its oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The virtual event provided Board Members with a diverse range of viewpoints on the FISA process, the law’s use for counterterrorism, challenges for privacy and civil liberties, and proposals for changes to the law.
Board to Hold June 24, 2020 Virtual Forum on FISA
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has announced a June 24 virtual public forum to examine the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The Board will consider the past and future of FISA in light of recent Department of Justice Inspector General reports on the law’s use. The virtual public forum will provide Board Members with a diverse range of viewpoints on the FISA process, the law’s use for counterterrorism, challenges for privacy and civil liberties, and proposals for changes to the law.
The Long History of Coercive Health Responses in American Law
Chairman Adam Klein and Benjamin Wittes opinion. Lawfare blog, April 13, 2020.
Nearly 10 years ago, we published in the Harvard National Security Journal a long article about preventive detention – that is, detention justified in law by the need to prevent future harm, rather than as punishment for a past crime. After examining more than a dozen varieties of preventive detention allowed by American Law, we concluded that, despite the “civic myth” that preventive detention is disfavored and rare, it is neither prohibited no “especially frowned upon in tradition or practice.” Surprisingly, American law allows quite a lot of it.
The Long History of Coercive Health Responses in American Law
The 9/11 Playbook for Protecting Privacy
New data tools can help fight the coronavirus — as long as we don’t forget the lessons we learned after 9/11.
The coronavirus pandemic will transform American life like no event since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The outbreak, it is now clear, will cause death and economic destruction far greater than 9/11, awakening us to the profound threat that pandemic disease poses to our well-being, economy, and way of life.
Adam Klein: To Fight Coronavirus Spread, Constitution Allows Governments to Do What Public Health Requires
Chairman Adam Klein opinion, Fox News, March 20, 2020.
Are authoritarian regimes inherently better at fighting pandemics? China appears – after months of delay and deception – to have brought its domestic outbreak under control, but COVID-19 (the disease caused by the novel coronavirus) continues to spread rapidly elsewhere.
It's Time for Congress to Sunset NSA's Call Data Program
Board Member Edward Felten opinion, The Hill, March 11, 2020.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, of which I am a member, recently issued a comprehensive public report on the government's use of the now-defunct call detail records (CDR) program under the USA FREEDOM Act. The report includes never before released facts about the program and its compliance and data integrity challenges that ultimately led the National Security Agency (NSA), wisely, to suspend the program in early 2019.
N.S.A. Phone Program Cost $100 Million, but Produced Only Two Unique Leads
New York Times on the Board’s Call Detail Records Report, February 25, 2020
A disputed program that allowed the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans’ domestic calls and texts yielded only one significant investigation, according to a newly declassified study.
N.S.A. Phone Program Cost $100 Million, but Produced Only Two Unique Leads
Statements From The Board’s May 31, 2019 Public Forum on the USA Freedom Act Telephone Call Records Program
The Board Releases Inventory of Active Oversight Projects and Other Initiatives
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board today released an inventory of its active oversight projects and other initiatives. Notably, the release discloses for the first time, after clearance by the agency, the subject of the Board’s “deep dive” review of a classified activity conducted by the NSA. The inventory also describes several previously unannounced projects approved by the Board in early 2017.
