(13.10.2017) Section 702 authorizes the NSA to target the electronic communications of foreign citizens outside the United States for intelligence-gathering purposes. In collecting those calls and emails, some Americans’ communications also are intercepted, but officials have long resisted saying how many. The FBI is allowed to search the 702 database for national security purposes, by making a query for things like an email address or a name.

Lawmakers on the left and the right would like to see the law modified so that the FBI would need a warrant to review some query results.