The government’s spying apparatus has been growing since the Bush administration first passed the so-called “PATRIOT” Act.
But this bombshell revelation has left privacy advocates stunned.
And a newly released intelligence report just blew the lid on America’s surveillance state with these jaw-dropping numbers.
Americans elected Donald Trump to drain the swamp and rein in government overreach.
But shocking new statistics reveal that surveillance of foreign targets has increased, potentially putting Americans’ Constitutional rights at risk through “incidental collection.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has just released its 2024 Annual Statistical Transparency Report that exposes the scale of government surveillance through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The report fulfills the government’s legal obligation to provide transparency on intelligence surveillance activities, as required by FISA and the Intelligence Community’s Principles of Intelligence Transparency.
And it reveals that in 2024, the number of foreign targets under Section 702 surveillance jumped to a record 291,824 – up from 268,590 in 2023.
That’s nearly 300,000 foreigners being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies, and Americans communicating with them can have their private information swept up in the process.
While these programs target foreigners, they inevitably capture communications and data from Americans – a massive privacy concern that Tulsi Gabbard has been outspoken about throughout her career.
Foreign surveillance skyrockets while FBI scales back domestic queries
The report shows wildly different trends between foreign and domestic surveillance.
While foreign targeting increased by nearly 9% in just one year, the FBI’s searches of Americans’ data have significantly decreased. The Bureau conducted only 5,518 U.S. person queries of Section 702 data in 2024, down dramatically from 57,094 in 2023 – a 90% decrease.
According to the report, this continuing downward trend is due to “increased focus on technical and policy controls, as well as individual caution related to accurately implementing the reforms.”
The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), signed into law in April 2024, codified several reforms. RISAA requires FBI personnel to provide written justification and obtain supervisor or attorney approval before conducting U.S. person queries of unminimized Section 702 data, and largely prohibited queries solely designed to find evidence of a crime except in limited circumstances.
NSA’s controversial unmasking program goes through the roof
While the FBI appears to be cleaning up its act, the news isn’t all positive. The NSA has significantly expanded its use of U.S. person query terms to search through foreign intelligence databases.
The report reveals that U.S. person query terms used by the NSA, CIA, and National Counterterrorism Center more than doubled in 2024, shooting up to 7,845 from 3,755 in 2023.
These agencies claim the increase was necessary to address “international terrorist threats to the Homeland and cybersecurity threats to U.S. infrastructure.”
Additionally, the report shows that NSA “unmasked” the identities of 12,873 Americans in intelligence reports during 2024. While this represents a significant decrease from the shocking 31,330 unmaskings in 2023, it’s still far higher than in previous years.
When intelligence reports mask Americans’ identities, other government officials can request to have those identities revealed or “unmasked.” In 2024, government officials made 12,570 such requests with 11,760 approved – raising serious questions about who is accessing Americans’ private communications and why.
FISA court orders dip slightly
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which approves surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States, issued 342 “probable cause” orders in 2024, down slightly from 352 in 2023.
Trump has been extremely critical of the FISA process after it was abused to spy on his 2016 campaign. RISAA implemented several reforms to the FISC process, including stronger requirements for using politically-derived information in applications.
The report highlights that both Congress and the administration have recognized the need to balance intelligence capabilities with safeguards to protect Americans’ civil liberties, which was a key focus of the RISAA reforms.
Trump’s challenge: balancing security and privacy
The Trump administration now faces the difficult challenge of balancing legitimate national security needs with protecting Americans’ privacy and civil liberties.
While the FBI seems to be backing off overly aggressive and unconstitutional domestic surveillance, the massive increase in foreign collection inevitably means more Americans’ communications will be caught in the surveillance dragnet.
Privacy advocates are particularly concerned about the 7,845 U.S. person query terms authorized by intelligence agencies in 2024 – terms specifically designed to search for Americans’ communications within data collected for foreign intelligence purposes.
As Trump continues his second term, Americans will be watching closely to see if he can successfully rein in the surveillance state while maintaining effective intelligence collection against legitimate foreign threats.