Secret CIA program may have breached Americans' privacy

US Senators have accused the CIA of gathering mass amounts of data in a secret program that operates outside of the law. However, the scope of the program and types of data collected are unknown.

Senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich sent a letter to the CIA, which was declassified but partially redacted on Thursday. It stated that the CIA had been allegedly operating outside of laws passed by Congress under the authority of Executive Order 12333 to collect bulk data. President Reagan signed the Executive Order in 1981 to govern intelligence community activity.

"It has done so entirely outside the statutory framework that Congress and the public believe govern this collection, and without any of the judicial, congressional or even executive branch oversight that comes with FISA collection," the letter stated, referencing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). "This basic fact has been kept from the public and from Congress. Until the PCLOB report was delivered last month, the nature and full extent of the CIA's collection was withheld even from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence."

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) also had a report declassified by the CIA, which provided recommendations about the secret program. PCLOB urges the CIA to require agency analysts to justify data searches on US citizens. According to their report, the only warning agency analysts get is an easily dismissed pop-up box.

According to coverage from The Hill, CIA privacy and civil liberties officer Kristi Scott provided a statement on the matter.

"CIA recognizes and takes very seriously our obligation to respect the privacy and civil liberties of US persons in the conduct of our vital national security mission," Scott said, according to the AP. "CIA is committed to transparency consistent with our obligation to protect intelligence sources and methods."

The Senate members believe that the declassified documents "reveal serious problems associated with warrant less backdoor searches of Americans." This echoes the concern Americans have about their privacy and civil liberties regarding how the CIA handles data collection. As a result, senators Wyden and Heinrich are both pressuring the CIA to have more transparency about the data collected and the process of using that data.

The CIA have run into issues with their data collection and security surrounding it before. In 2017 the CIA "Vault 7" where hacking tools were stored was leaked online.