Bulk Collection of Signals Intelligence Technical Options (2015) / Chapter Skim
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2 Basic Concepts
2 Basic Concepts
Pages 26-39
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Based on the priorities stated by decision makers, intelligence officials in the community identify specific collection methods and opportunities that are expected to yield useful information. These methods and opportunities interact with and support each other (much as the various elements in an ecosystem interact with each other)
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2.1 A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE PROCESS Signals intelligence is defined by the National Security Agency (NSA) to be "intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radars, and weapons systems."1 In the modern world, distinctions between paper records and electronic recordings that may once have been technically meaningful are increasingly obsolete as all forms of information storage become electronic.
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The first three steps in the SIGINT model, taken together, are what the committee informally calls collection:2 2 The committee's definition of collection differs from that used by NSA in certain ways. See, for example, NSA, NSA's Civil Liberties and Privacy Protections for Targeted SIGINT ctivities Under Executive Order 12333, NSA Director of Civil Liberties and Privacy ffice A O Report, October 7, 2014, https://www.nsa.gov/civil_liberties/_files/nsa_clpo_report_ targeted_EO12333.pdf.
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. In cases where business records are sought, this step extracts and reformats relevant SIGINT data from a business record format used by the business.
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persons is collected as a part of authorized foreign intelligence collection activities, minimization rules approved by the U.S. Attorney General require special handling for privacy protection, consistent with foreign intelligence needs, which typically will require removing the names of U.S.
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2.1.2 Analysis Intelligence collection results in large databases holding records that are expected to have intelligence value. (Table 2.1 provides a hypothetical example of records in such a database.)
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This process is designed to ensure that both the requesting agency and NSA, as the disseminator of the information, can verify that disclosing this sensitive information is appropriate and necessary to understand the foreign intelligence value of the report. 2.2 BULK AND TARGETED COLLECTION Presidential Policy Directive 28 (PPD-28)
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A discriminant could even refer to the content in a communication, such as "all email with the word ‘nuclear' in it." Note that if a discriminant is broadly crafted, the filter may retain such a large proportion of data on people of no intelligence value that the collection cannot be called "targeted." PPD-28 seeks ways to reduce or avoid bulk collection in order to increase privacy and civil liberty protections for those not relevant to the intelligence collection purposes. Note that there is no precise threshold in collecting data on such "harmless" persons that will distinguish between bulk and targeted; it's a matter of degree.
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Various web-based applications, such as electronic banking or online shopping that allow users to exchange information electronically, are among these modalities, even if they are not usually thought of as means for communication, per se. Obtaining phone metadata under Section 215 authority also counts as bulk collection.
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Figure 2-2 • Seed: A subject of interest that is used as the starting point for an intelligence investigation. • RAS target: A target for which there is a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the person is associated with a foreign terrorist organization.9 For the purposes of this report only, and realizing that they may have different and possibly broader meanings in the IC, the committee uses the working definitions presented in Box 2.1, drawn from statutes and its understanding of IC practices in the context of SIGINT and technology.
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that it is associated with a foreign terrorist organization. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 215 requires a RAS target designation to permit certain queries.
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Note: Although the term "bulk" suggests that the set of collected data is large, and bulk data can indeed be large, size alone is not the controlling factor in defining bulk collection. targeted Collection that stores only the SIGINT data that remains after a collection filter discriminant removes most non-target data.
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See USA Patriot Act,6 also "Administration White Paper: Bulk Collection of Telephony Metadata under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act."7
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or a corporation which is incorporated in the United States …" For details see Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.9 1 "Administration White Paper: Bulk Collection of Telephony Metadata Under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act," August 9, 2013, p.
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