Meet Executive Order 12333: The Reagan rule that lets the NSA spy on Americans

[Commentary] Americans should be concerned about the collection and storage of their communications under Executive Order 12333 than under Section 215.

Issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 to authorize foreign intelligence investigations, 12333 is not a statute and has never been subject to meaningful oversight from Congress or any court. Unlike Section 215, the executive order authorizes collection of the content of communications, not just metadata, even for US persons.

Executive Order 12333 contains nothing to prevent the National Security Agency from collecting and storing all such communications -- content as well as metadata -- provided that such collection occurs outside the United States in the course of a lawful foreign intelligence investigation. No warrant or court approval is required, and such collection never need be reported to Congress.

None of the reforms that President Barack Obama announced earlier this year will affect such collection.

[Tye served as section chief for Internet freedom in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from January 2011 to April 2014]