--- title: CIA Publishes New Guidelines on Citizen Surveillance description: The CIA has for the first time published its revised regulations for the collection, analysis and storage of information about U.S. citizens canonical: https://time.com/4638866/cia-surveillance-nsa-intelligence/ author: Feliz Solomon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-19T03:32:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:48:04.029Z article:section: Politics og:title: CIA Publishes Updated Rules on Citizen Surveillance og:description: It's the first time the CIA has published the rules in full og:url: https://time.com/4638866/cia-surveillance-nsa-intelligence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3695802487723607/6988b60c86f68e7c5b6e32e4/rtx2udj7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3383 og:image:height: 1903 og:image:alt: The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: CIA Publishes Updated Rules on Citizen Surveillance twitter:description: It's the first time the CIA has published the rules in full twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3695802487723607/6988b60c86f68e7c5b6e32e4/rtx2udj7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The CIA Just Published Its Updated Rules on Citizen Surveillance > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Jan 19, 2017 3:32 AM UTC  The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley, Virginia on Aug. 14, 2008. The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley, Virginia on Aug. 14, 2008.Larry Downing—Reuters by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Jan 19, 2017 3:32 AM UTC The CIA has published in full its [revised regulations](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-intelligence-idUSKBN15236Z?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm%5Fsource=twitter&utm%5Fmedium=Social) for the collection, analysis and storage of information about U.S. citizens, the first disclosure of its kind. Reuters reports that the rules were updated to be more appropriate to the information age, where digital storage devices can hold huge amounts of data. CIA general counsel Caroline Krass told reporters that the regulations were written “in a manner that protects the privacy and civil rights” of U.S. citizens. The disclosure comes just two days before the Inauguration of Donald Trump as the next President, and follows years of growing public concern over privacy. Trump has suggested that he supports increased surveillance powers for the government. The public has become increasingly frustrated with the secrecy and spread of government surveillance programs since the 2013 exposure by[ Edward Snowden](http://time.com/4637426/edward-snowden-russia-asylum/) that the National Security Agency was collecting data on millions of American citizens. Krass said the new regulations update a “patchwork of policies and procedures” that were left over from previous administrations, and had become out of step with today’s technology, according to Reuters. The newly published regulations explain what steps must be taken when the CIA obtains a large cache of data from which an assessment of intelligence value could take time, and how such data should be searched. The guidelines require the CIA to destroy any sensitive data that has not been evaluated after five years. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-intelligence-idUSKBN15236Z?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm%5Fsource=twitter&utm%5Fmedium=Social)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4638866/cia-surveillance-nsa-intelligence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4638866/cia-surveillance-nsa-intelligence/"},"headline":"The CIA Just Published Its Updated Rules on Citizen Surveillance","datePublished":"2017-01-19T03:32:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:48:04.029Z","description":"It's the first time the CIA has published the rules in full","url":"https://time.com/4638866/cia-surveillance-nsa-intelligence/","keywords":["intelligence","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3695802487723607/6988b60c86f68e7c5b6e32e4/rtx2udj7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Feliz Solomon","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3695802487723607/6988b60c86f68e7c5b6e32e4/rtx2udj7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley","caption":"The lobby of the CIA Headquarters Building in Langley","creditText":"Larry Downing—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/intelligence/","name":"intelligence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4638866/cia-surveillance-nsa-intelligence/","name":"The CIA Just Published Its Updated Rules on Citizen Surveillance"}}]}] ```