Bulk Collection of Signals Intelligence: Technical Options
Committee on Responding to Section 5(d) of Presidential Policy Directive 28: The Feasibility of Software to Provide Alternatives to Bulk Signals Intelligence Collection; Computer Science and Telecommunications Board; Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences; National Research Council
Citation: Bulk Collection of Signals Intelligence: Technical Options, National Academies Press, 2015.
Email: blampson@microsoft.com. This paper is at http://www.research.microsoft.com.
Abstract:
The Bulk Collection of Signals Intelligence: Technical Options study is a result of an activity called for in Presidential Policy Directive 28 (PPD-28), issued by President Obama in January 2014, to evaluate U.S. signals intelligence practices. The directive instructed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to produce a report within one year "assessing the feasibility of creating software that would allow the intelligence community more easily to conduct targeted information acquisition rather than bulk collection." ODNI asked the National Research Council (NRC)—the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering—to conduct a study, which began in June 2014, to assist in preparing a response to the President. Over the ensuing months, a committee of experts appointed by the Research Council produced the report.
Bulk Collection of Signals Intelligence: Technical Options assesses the feasibility of creating software that would allow the U.S. intelligence community more easily to conduct targeted information acquisition rather than bulk collection of signals intelligence. It concludes that although there is no software technique that can fully substitute for bulk collection, software can be developed to more effectively target collection and to control the use of collected data.