The Central Intelligence Agency has declassified its routine espionage operations and from now on, the citizens will have full access to the information.
According to the revised rule, the CIA has to remove all the information that it collects overseas from its data base within five years of acquiring the data. This includes communications which may involve U.S. individuals.
"The CIA today releases the revised Attorney General Guidelines to increase transparency for the American people regarding how the CIA handles information concerning United States persons as the CIA pursues its lawfully authorized activities. While the CIA's specific activities, as well as its specific sources and methods, must remain classified to protect our national security, the revised Attorney General Guidelines are being released without redaction," notes the agency.
The officials of CIA noted the changes as a comprehensive update to guidelines that have been in place since the early 1980s. At the time, the CIA was not allowed to collect data inside the country or on its citizens. However, a presidential order in 1980 paved the way for discrete exceptions that were governed by procedures approved by the CIA's director and the attorney general.
Known as the "Attorney General Guidelines," the original rules over time became a "patchwork of policies and procedures" that failed to keep pace with the development of technology that can store massive amounts of digital data, as revealed by the agency's general counsel, Caroline Krass.
The New Guidelines
The new guidelines come amidst growing public discomfort over the surveillance power of the federal government. This surveillance issue gained prominence after Edward Snowden revealed how National Security Agency was spying on innocent citizens.
CIA officials admitted that the changes were made without any input from civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union that recommended more aggressive measures to safeguard Americans' privacy than are reflected in the updated guidelines.
CIA's Ben Huebner noted that the revised guidelines will help the agency in handling the large amount of information on laptops, pen drives and other devices that are swept up in standard espionage.
The five-year cap on storing information is applicable only for the most sensitive data, which includes email or cellphone intercepts. Otherwise, the data may remain in the agency's data base without being exploited or evaluated. Information that is less sensitive can be removed after 25 years.
The new rules are not applicable to covert operations of the CIA such as drone strikes on suspected terrorists.
The revised guidelines have been published on the official website of CIA two days prior to the presidential swearing-in ceremony. It is also expected that Donald Trump who is reportedly a believer of strong government surveillance, which includes monitoring of mosques all across the country, may not come to terms with the new changes and could end up canceling them completely.
