PCLOB “Book Report” Fails to Investigate or Tell the Public the Truth About Domestic Mass Surveillance

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) has concluded its six-year investigation into Executive Order 12333, one of the most sprawling and influential authorities that enables the U.S. government’s mass surveillance programs. The result is a bland, short summary of a classified report, as well as a justified, scathing, and unprecedented unclassified statement of opposition from PCLOB member Travis LeBlanc.

Let’s start with the fact that the report is still classified—the PCLOB is supposed to provide public access to its work “to the greatest extent” consistent with the law and the needs of classification.  Yet the public statement here is just 26  pages describing, rather than analyzing, the program. Nothing signals to the public a lack of commitment to transparency and a frank assessment of civil liberties violations like blocking the public from even reading a report about one of the most invasive U.S. surveillance programs.

Member LeBlanc rightly points out that, at a minimum, the PCLOB should have sought to have as much of its report declassified as possible, rather than issuing what he correctly criticizes as more like a “book report” than an expert legal and technical assessment. 

The PCLOB was created after a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission to address important civil liberties issues raised by intelligence community activities. While its first report about Section 215 was critical in driving Congress to scale back that program, other PCLOB reports have been less useful. EFF sharply disagreed with the Board’s findings in 2014 on surveillance under FISA Section 702, especially where it found that the Section 702 program is sound “at its core,” and provides “considerable value” in the fight against terrorism—despite going on to make ten massive recommendations for what the program must do to avoid infringing on people’s privacy.
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