On November 5, 2024, the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) published a statement on Section 3 of Executive Order 14086 on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (the EO).

PCLOB highlighted that Section 3 of the EO establishes a redress mechanism to review qualifying complaints transmitted by a qualifying public authority concerning US signals intelligence activities for any covered violation of US law and, if necessary, appropriate remediation. Qualifying complaints are investigated by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Civil Liberties Protection Officer (CLPO) to determine whether a violation has occurred.

Section 3 of the EO also encourages PCLOB to conduct an annual review of the processing of qualifying complaints by the redress mechanism.

Notably, PCLOB outlined that the ODNI CLPO had not received any qualifying complaints as of November 5, 2024. Accordingly, PCLOB provided that it cannot issue a report regarding the complaints by the redress mechanism.

Moving forward, PCLOB provided that it will review the implementation of updated policies and procedures adopted by intelligence agencies to ensure they are consistent with the EO. PCLOB will publish the result of the review of updated policies and procedures in 2025, considering specifically whether the safeguards under Section 2 of the EO are considered by the CLPO and Data Protection Review Court.

You can read the statement here.