WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — In non-foreign intelligence cases, the FBI is “sort of entitled to poke around to see if something is going on,” Medine explained.
“The FBI routinely looks into [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Section] 702 databases and not just in investigations, but in assessments when the FBI has absolutely no suspicion of wrongdoing,” Medine said in a Senate Judiciary hearing on privacy and government surveillance.
The FBI, which is entitled to query the intelligence database, is expected to minimize its database searches for information related to non-foreign intelligence matters. According to a 2014 report by the PCLOB, the FBI was found to be the most active user of the foreign intelligence database for queries into US persons.
Despite legislation and increased oversight in US government surveillance practices, the amount of data collected on US citizens is still unknown.
The Tuesday Senate hearing was convened more than one year in advance of the 2017 vote to reauthorize the controversial section 702 of FISA. Civil liberties advocates have strongly opposed the bulk data collection as a violation of privacy and an apparent violation of the US Constitution’s prohibition of undue search and seizure.
The PCLOB is an independent federal executive branch agency, whose members are appointed by the US President and confirmed by the Senate.
