Tye also implies that the NSA could use the executive order even more broadly, making surveillance authorities like Section 215 of the Patriot Act – which the government relies upon for its bulk phone-records program – pale in comparison:

Consider the possibility that Section 215 collection does not represent the outer limits of collection on U.S. persons but rather is a mechanism to backfill that portion of U.S. person data that cannot be collected overseas under 12333.