Surveillance and Domestic Intelligence (FISA)

Surveillance and domestic intelligence covers how the government collects information on people and groups for national security purposes, including communications that cross borders or pass through American companies. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, sets up a special court and a set of procedures for this work. Intelligence agencies, the Justice Department, Congress, and technology companies are all involved.

People usually ask how the secret court operates, how Congress reviews and renews surveillance authorities, and what access the government has to private messages and stored data. They also ask how national security surveillance differs from ordinary police searches and what protections ordinary Americans have.