US intelligence agencies will finally reveal how many people each year they target

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has announced that the US intelligence community will start revealing how many people are targeted each year by surveillance, a long-sought victory for transparency advocates. In a Tumblr post, Clapper says that the NSA and other agencies will begin releasing the total number of surveillance orders made under several programs.

The numbers are set to be revealed in an annual report issued by the intelligence community, including information about orders justified under various FISA and Patriot Act provisions. Among them is FISA Section 702, which authorizes collecting email and other electronic information, as well as FISA-authorized wiretaps, business record collection (which justified collecting Verizon customers' phone records), and national security letters, the secret and overused subpoenas used by the FBI.