National security surveillance on U.S. soil dropped again in 2021

WASHINGTON » Court-approved national security surveillance on domestic soil fell for the third straight year in 2021, extending a trend that has coincided with the decline of the Islamic State group, the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and the tightening of procedures after the FBI’S botching of wiretap applications in the Donald Trump-russia investigation.

There were 376 targets of court-approved wiretaps and physical search orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, in 2021, according to declassified data in a new report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The report estimated that of those, about 309 were foreigners on domestic soil, and about 67 were U.S. citizens, U.S. companies or lawful permanent residents.

The total number of targets was the lowest yet in the nine years that the office has released annual reports disclosing figures about the government’s use of national security surveillance powers. As recently as 2018, there had been about 1,833 targets of FISA orders. In 2019, that figure dropped to about 1,059, and in 2020, there were about 451. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence began issuing annual reports about its use of surveillance powers after the fallout from the 2013 leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

At the same time, the new report showed that the NSA’S use of its warrantless surveillance powers hit a new high. Eavesdropping on foreigners abroad who use U.s.-based providers such as Google and AT&T is allowed without requiring individualized court orders. There were about 232,000 targets in 2021, the report said.