Intel targets

Statistical Transparency Report Regarding Use of National Security Authorities - Annual Statistics for Calendar Year 2015

Targets: Within the IC, the term “target” has multiple meanings. With respect to the statistics provided in this report, the term “target” is defined as the individual person, group, entity comprised of multiple individuals, or foreign power that uses the selector, such as a telephone number or email address. If a target were known to use four different selectors, the IC would count one target, not four. Alternatively, if four targets were known to use a one selector, the IC would count four targets.

The term “target” can also be used as a verb. Under Section 702, for example, the IC “targets” a particular non-U.S. person, group, or entity reasonably believed to be located outside the United States and who possesses, or who is likely to communicate or receive, foreign intelligence information, by “tasking” selectors that are assessed to be used by such non-U.S. person, group or entity, pursuant to targeting procedures approved by the FISC. 
The number of 702 “targets” reflects an estimate of the number of known users of tasked selectors. This estimate is based on the information readily available to the IC. Unless and until the IC has information that links multiple selectors to a single foreign intelligence target, each individual selector is counted as a being associated with a separate target in this report. On the other hand, where the IC is aware that multiple selectors are used by the same target, the IC counts the user of those selectors as a single target. This method of estimating helps ensure that the IC does not inadvertently understate the number of discrete persons targeted pursuant to Section 702.