UNMASKING by U.S. intelligence agencies "Important to note [future events]. Masking v unmasking incidentally intercepted v direct [target] 702 collection [minimization procedures] v CIA v FVEY How does the CIA collect intelligence? https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html📁 CIA not governed by FISA [intelligence operations conducted outside US] FBI is under FISA [foreign counterintelligence mission is principally domestic] Target location: US or abroad [traveling][rules] Foreign intelligence collection of US person(s). Official v unofficial. What [central] AB[C] agency played quarterback? Q" "UNMASKING by U.S. intelligence agencies typically occurs after the United States conducts eavesdropping or other intelligence gathering aimed at foreigners or foreign agents, and the name of a U.S. citizen or entity is incidentally collected. Intelligence reports are then disseminated within the U.S. government, with such names MASKED to protect those U.S. citizens from invasion of privacy. The names can subsequently be UNMASKED upon request by authorized U.S. government officials under certain circumstances. Jargon When an intelligence agency spies on foreign citizens or agents, and information about innocent domestic citizens is uncovered even though they are not targets of investigation, that is called "incidental collection". If the intelligence agency is operating in a manner designed to protect privacy rights, then it normally addresses incidental collection by using a process called "minimization" which includes replacing names of innocent domestic citizens with designations like "U.S. Person One," "U.S. Person Two," et cetera, before the intelligence reports will be distributed within the government. There are essentially two types of incidental collection. The first type is when legitimate foreign intelligence targets are speaking about a domestic person. The second type is when a legitimate foreign intelligence target is speaking with a domestic person. If the domestic person information is deemed not to have intelligence value then it is purged from government databases, but otherwise can be disseminated with minimization; in the first type of incidental collection the domestic names will be redacted, and in the second type of incidental collection everything the domestic person says will be redacted. As former CIA official Michael Morrell has put it, "In the second type of incidental collection, where the U.S. person is actually part of the conversation, typically nothing that U.S. person says can be disseminated. United States law In the United States, the various intelligence agencies such as the CIA, FBI and National Counterterrorism Center have their own distinctive minimization procedures and unmasking procedures, which were partially declassified in August 2016.At the National Security Agency (NSA), about 20 people have authority to approve unmasking requests, according to NSA Director Michael S. Rogers. Former FBI Director James Comey said that his agency necessarily has many more than 20 PEOPLE with UNMASKING authority, which he attributed to the fact that the scope of the FBI's mission includes domestic affairs." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmasking_by_U.S._intelligence_agencies