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New federal statistics show a steep decrease in the number of times the FBI searched a vast foreign intelligence repository for information about Americans and others in the United States last year.
The number of “U.S. person queries” plunged from 57,094 in 2023 to 5,518 in 2024, according to the report published Monday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The report details the use of a surveillance program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that allows the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners located in other countries — including when they are in contact with Americans or other people inside the U.S.
National security officials have said the program is vital to protecting the country, but civil liberties advocates have condemned it as a violation of Americans' privacy.
The report concludes that the decrease is due in large part to the adoption of tighter rules governing the program, including a requirement that the FBI enter a justification for a database query about an American before conducting it.
The numbers have dropped consistently in recent years. In 2022, the FBI racked up nearly 120,000 U.S. person queries.
Former President Joe Biden signed legislation reauthorizing the surveillance law last year after debates over civil liberty protections nearly forced the statute to lapse.
A key source of concern — uniting an unusual alliance of far-right Republican supporters of President Donald Trump with Democratic champions of civil liberties — is that FBI analysts have repeatedly run improper or unjustified database queries about people in the U.S.
The surveillance tool was first authorized in 2008.
The latest figures are included in an annual report, mandated by law, that provides statistical data about a broad array of the U.S. government’s surveillance powers.
The FBI had no immediate comment on the report.
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