Sec. 101. Prohibition on warrantless queries for the communications of United States persons
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Section 702(f) ( 50 U.S.C. 1881a(f) ) is amended by inserting after paragraph
(1)the following new paragraph (2): Except as provided in subparagraphs
(B)and (C), no officer or employee of the United States may conduct a covered query of information acquired under this section in an effort to find the contents of communications or information of or about 1 or more United States persons. Subparagraph
(A)shall not apply to a query related to a United States person if— such person is the subject of an order or emergency authorization authorizing electronic surveillance under section 105 or a physical search under section 304, or a warrant issued pursuant to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure by a court of competent jurisdiction authorizing the conduct of the query; the officer or employee carrying out the query has a reasonable belief that— an emergency exists involving an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm; and in order to prevent or mitigate this threat, the query must be conducted before authorization pursuant to subclause
(I)can, with due diligence, be obtained; such person or, if such person is incapable of providing consent, a third party legally authorized to consent on behalf of such person, has provided consent to the query on a case-by-case basis; or the query uses a known cybersecurity threat signature as a query term; the query is conducted, and the results of the query are used, for the sole purpose of identifying targeted recipients of malicious software and preventing or mitigating harm from such malicious software; and no additional contents of communications retrieved as a result of the query are accessed or reviewed. No information retrieved pursuant to a query authorized by clause (i)(II) or information derived from such query may be used, received in evidence, or otherwise disseminated in any investigation, trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, office, agency, regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a State, or political subdivision thereof, except in proceedings or investigations that arise from the threat that prompted the query. Not less frequently than annually, the Attorney General shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees and the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives an assessment of the compliance with the requirements under subclause (I). The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court shall be provided a description of each query that is conducted pursuant to an exception described in subclause
(II)or
(IV)of clause
(i)by not later than 90 days after the date on which the query is conducted. The congressional intelligence committees and the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and of the Senate shall be provided a description of each query that is conducted pursuant to an exception described in subclause
(II)of clause
(i)by not later than 90 days after the date on which the query is conducted. In the event that a query for the contents of communications or information of or about 1 or more United States persons is conducted pursuant to an emergency authorization described in subparagraph (B)(i)(I) and the application for such emergency authorization is denied, or in any other case in which the query has been conducted and no order is issued approving the query— no information obtained or evidence derived from such query may be used, received in evidence, or otherwise disseminated in any investigation, trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, office, agency, regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a State, or political subdivision thereof; and no information concerning any United States person acquired from such query may subsequently be used or disclosed in any other manner without the consent of such person, except with the approval of the Attorney General if the information indicates a threat of death or serious bodily harm to any person. Not less frequently than annually, the Attorney General shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees and the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives an assessment of the compliance with the requirements under subclause (I). . Section 702(f) ( 50 U.S.C. 1881a(f) ) is amended by striking paragraph (5)(B) and inserting the following: The term query — means the use of any technique, whether manual or automated, to detect or retrieve information obtained through acquisitions authorized under subsection
(a)from within a system, collection, or assortment of information, or a subset thereof; and does not include the manual observation of retrieved information. The term covered query means a query that— is conducted using 1 or more terms associated with 1 or more covered persons, including personally identifiable information; is conducted in whole or in part for the purpose of detecting or retrieving information of, or concerning, 1 or more covered persons; or is conducted with specific reason to believe the query will detect or retrieve information of, or concerning, 1 or more covered persons. Whether a query is a covered query shall be determined without regard to whether the information subject to the query has already been detected or retrieved using a method other than a query described in clause (i). The term covered person means a United States person. . Section 702(f) ( 50 U.S.C. 1881a(f) ) is further amended as follows: In paragraph (3), by striking subparagraph (A). By redesignating the second paragraph
(2)(relating to Prohibition on conduct of queries that are solely designed to find and extract evidence of a crime) as subparagraph
(A)(and redesignating the subordinate provisions accordingly) and transferring such subparagraph so as to appear in paragraph
(3)before subparagraph
(B)of such paragraph. In paragraph (3)(B)(ii), as so redesignated, by striking under subparagraph
(A)and inserting under clause
(i). Section 702(f) ( 50 U.S.C. 1881a(f) ) is further amended— by redesignating paragraph
(5)as paragraph
(8)and moving such paragraph so as to appear at the end; by redesignating paragraph
(6)as paragraph (5); and by inserting before paragraph (8), as so redesignated, the following new paragraphs: If a query of information acquired under this section is conducted in an effort to find communications metadata of 1 or more United States persons the results of the query shall not be used as a basis for reviewing communications or information a query for which is otherwise prohibited under this section. The prohibitions and requirements in this section shall apply to queries of federated and mixed datasets that include information acquired under this section, unless a mechanism exists to limit the query to information not acquired under this section. .
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Sec. 101
Prohibition on warrantless queries for the communications of United States persons
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