Opinion ID: 4465383
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Incidental and Inadvertent Collection

Text: As detailed above, the statute primarily authorizes agencies like the NSA to collect the e-mails of non-United States persons located abroad. But even if the government scrupulously follows the procedures intended to restrict 26 collection of communications to and from persons with ties to the United States, the agencies might still end up collecting information about United States persons or those located in the United States, or communications sent to or from a United States person or an individual located in the United States. Collection may sweep up those individuals' e-mails in two ways, conventionally referred to as incidental collection and inadvertent collection. First, collection might be incidental. PCLOB Report at 114. Incidental collection occurs when a non-targeted individual (a United States person or someone in the United States) communicates with a targeted non-United States person located abroad. Such collection would occur under PRISM, for instance, if the NSA has targeted the e-mail address of a non-United States person in another country, and a United States person e-mails that targeted individual. An ISP would be required to provide the NSA with any such e-mails as part of its compliance with a Section 702 directive targeting the non-United States party to the communication. Second, collection might be inadvertent. Id. at 116. Inadvertent collection occurs when the NSA reasonably believes that it is targeting a non-United States person located abroad, or does not have enough information to determine 27 whether an individual e-mail address or other communications facility is being used by a United States person or accessed from within the United States, and therefore presumes that the account is controlled by a foreigner outside the United States. The collection is characterized as inadvertent when the agency learns that the person controlling the account is a United States person after it has already acquired some of the person's communications. In essence, inadvertent collection occurs when the NSA targets United States persons or individuals located within the United States in error: the agency thought it was targeting a foreign individual abroad, but the targeted person was in fact a United States person or an individual located in the United States.