NSAs authorization to look at your records is only related to their judgement as to your foreignness [View all]

[dkf]

Instead of targeting foreign-to-foreign communications, FISA Amendments Act surveillance need only target people reasonably believed to be abroad. The Act empowers the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to formulate guidelines for achieving “the targeting of persons reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S. to acquire foreign intelligence information.” The targeting procedures must be “reasonably designed“ to target people “reasonably believed to be located outside the United States.” According to the Washington Post report, NSA agents are interpreting this to permit them to set intelligence collection parameters so that at least 51% of the communications intercepted involve those to people who are abroad. That’s a low bar—one that Congress did not intend—and one that belies claims that collection of communications of people in the U.S. is merely “incidental” to the collection of communications of people targeted abroad.

The NSA’s authorization to access your personal information is completely unrelated to whether you have engaged in any behavior that would suggest you present a national security threat. The only criterion subject to judicial authorization that protects people in the U.S. against collection of the content of their communications is “foreignness.” The U.S. Constitution bounds what the American government has the authority to do, and it protects the right not to be searched without a warrant. That is why FISA surveillance that targets people in the U.S. is conducted under a more stringent standard; for people in the U.S., the FISA Court must find that there has to be probable cause to believe that the target of surveillance is a terrorist, spy or other agent of a foreign power.

https://www.cdt.org/blogs/1006we-are-49