Statistical Transparency Report Regarding Use of National Security Authorities - Annual Statistics for Calendar Year 2016

In June 2014, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) began releasing statistics relating to the use of critical national security authorities, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), in an annual report called the Statistical Transparency Report Regarding Use of National Security Authorities (hereafter the Annual Statistical Transparency Report). Subsequent Annual Statistical Transparency Reports were released in 2015 and 2016.

On June 2, 2015, the USA FREEDOM Act was enacted, codifying a requirement to publicly report many of the statistics already reported in the Annual Statistical Transparency Report. The Act also expanded the scope of the information included in the reports by requiring the DNI to report information concerning United States person search terms and queries of certain FISA-acquired information, as well as specific statistics concerning information collected pursuant to call detail records. See 50 U.S.C. § 1873(b).

Today, consistent with the USA FREEDOM Act requirements to release certain statistics (codified in 50 U.S.C. § 1873(b)) and the Intelligence Community’s (IC) Principles of Intelligence Transparency, we are releasing our fourth Annual Statistical Transparency Report presenting statistics on how often the government uses certain national security authorities.

This fourth report has been reformatted to provide a description of the statistics being reported. Related definitions and additional context to the statistics included in this report are provided throughout. The order in which the statistics are presented remains consistent with last year’s report and follows the order set forth in 50 U.S.C. § 1873(b).

Additional public information on national security authorities is available at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) website, www.dni.gov, and ODNI’s public Tumblr site, IContheRecord.tumblr.com.


View the CY2016 Statistical Transparency Report