The Review Group
Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies Seeks Public Comment
Press Release
September 4, 2013On August 12, 2013 President Obama directed the establishment of the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. While the Review Group is administratively housed at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), it is conducting an independent review and will report to the President through the DNI.
President Obama met with the members of the Review Group on August 27, Richard Clarke, Michael Morell, Geoffrey Stone, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire. The President thanked the Members of the Group for taking on this important task and looks forward to hearing from them as their work proceeds.
Seeking Public Comment
The Review Group is seeking public comments on all matters that the President has directed it to examine, namely, how in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States can employ its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while respecting our commitment to privacy and civil liberties, recognizing our need to maintain the public trust, and reducing the risk of unauthorized disclosure. Comments can be provided via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for public submissions is October 4, 2013.
The comments you provide to the Review Group will be used to inform the group’s deliberations.
Review Group Privacy and Comment Policy
Your comments will become part of the official record of the Review Group’s activity and will be retained consistent with applicable policy and legal requirements. At this time, the Review Group is receiving comments only, and will not be responding to submitters. However, the Review Group may determine it appropriate to the public debate to post your comments publicly. Accordingly, any personal information you provide in the comments, or in an address or signature block, may be disclosed. Providing a comment is voluntary, and implies your consent to publication of the comment and any personal information contained in it.
Should the Review Group post comments, it will review all comments prior to posting and will not post comments that contain vulgar or abusive language; personal attacks of any kind; offensive terms that target specific groups; spam or comments that are clearly “off topic”; commercial promotions; information that promotes or opposes any political party, person campaigning for elected office, or any ballot proposition; reports of criminal or suspicious activity - if you have information for law enforcement, please contact your local police agency; unsolicited proposals, or other business ideas or inquiries; solicitations for contracting or commercial business; or any claims, demands, informal or formal complaints, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notices or processes; normal complaints, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notices or processes.
The Review Group
Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies Conducts Meetings with Privacy and Civil Liberties Experts and Information Technology Industry Experts
Press Release
September 9, 2013Today, members of the Review Group on Intelligence and CommunicationsTechnologies met with more than a dozen privacy and civil liberties groups and experts to hear comments about how the review group should carry out its tasks. Participants discussed recommendations about how to respect the Intelligence Community’s commitment to privacy and civil liberties and maintain the public trust.
In a separate meeting, the review group today met with information technology companies and experts. Participants discussed the foreign policy implications, including economic implications, of U.S. policy concerning intelligence and communications technology.
The meetings today are part of the Review Group’s overall efforts to receive comments from the public on all matters that the President has asked it to examine. Comments can be provided via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for public submissions is October 4, 2013. Further information on public comments is available via IC on the Record.
On August 12, 2013 President Obama directed the establishment of the review group. While it is administratively housed at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), it is conducting an independent review and will report directly to the President.
The review group’s task is to advise the President “on how, in light of advancements in technology, the United States can employ its technical collection capabilities in a way that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while respecting our commitment to privacy and civil liberties, recognizing our need to maintain the public trust, and reducing the risk of unauthorized disclosure.”
The Civil Liberties Protection Officer
Rebecca J. Richards is the Civil Liberties Protection Officer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. In that capacity, she leads the ODNI's Office of Civil Liberties, Privacy and Transparency, and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence.
Civil Liberties and Privacy Intelligence Community Enterprise Strategy 2019-2024
Provides the CLPT's strategic roadmap for enhancing the IC’s framework for protecting civil liberties and privacy, highlighting four high-level goals relating to civil liberties and privacy to obtain the trust of the American people. The goals focus on protecting civil liberties and privacy through policy implementation, ensuring compliance with the Constitution and laws, handling complaints of possible abuses of civil liberties, and providing transparency.
Intelligence Community Directive 107: Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency
This Directive establishes Intelligence Community policy for protecting civil liberties and privacy and for providing greater transparency that enhances public understanding of, and trust in, the IC mission, its governance framework, and intelligence activities as defined in EO 12333.
The Review Group
Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies Releases Public Comments
Press Release
November 1, 2013
On September 4, 2013 the Review Group solicited comments from the public to inform its deliberations. Between September 4, 2013 and October 4, 2013, the Review Group received close to 250 comments.
The Review Group has reviewed all submitted comments, and is publishing all comments that meet the Review Group's Privacy and Comment Policy. Comments submitted to the Review Group have become part of the official record of the Review Group’s activity and will be retained consistent with applicable policy and legal requirements.
The Review Group uses the website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as a vehicle for outreach and maintains a web presence on that website. Published comments are available here. Posted comments do not reflect the opinions of the Review Group Members, whether individually or collectively, nor of the USG.
The Review Group Members thank all who took time and effort to share their ideas.
On August 12, 2013 President Obama directed the establishment of a Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and tasked the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to provide administrative support to the Review Group. President Obama met with the members of the Review Group - Richard Clarke, Michael Morell, Geoffrey Stone, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire - on August 27 and thanked them for taking on this important task. Their mission is to review and provide recommendations on “how in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States can employ its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while respecting our commitment to privacy and civil liberties, recognizing our need to maintain the public trust, and reducing the risk of unauthorized disclosure.”
Chief Information Officer
IC Technical Specifications
Access Rights and Handling
Overview
This XML Data Encoding Specification for Access Rights and Handling (ARH.XML) defines detailed implementation guidance for using Extensible Markup Language (XML) to encode ARH data.
Information sharing within the national intelligence enterprise will increasingly rely on information assurance metadata (including enterprise data headers) to allow interagency access control, automated exchanges, and appropriate protection of shared intelligence. A structured, verifiable representation of security metadata bound to the intelligence data is required in order for the enterprise to become inherently "smarter" about the information flowing in and around it. Such a representation, when implemented with other data formats, improved user interfaces, and data processing utilities, can provide part of a larger, robust information assurance infrastructure capable of automating some of the management and exchange decisions today being performed by human beings.
The Intelligence Community (IC) has standardized the various classification and control markings established for information sharing within the Information Security Markings (ISM) and Need-To-Know (NTK) XML specifications of the Intelligence Community Enterprise Architecture (ICEA) Data Standards. The IC Access Requirements and Handling XML specification combines elements of the ISM and NTK specifications and extends them to access rights management and handling needs.
Technical Specification Downloads
Latest Approved Public Release:
- XML Data Encoding Specification for Access Rights and Handling (V3 - Standalone Package (Release Date: 6 Sep 2013))
- XML Data Encoding Specification for Access Rights and Handling (V3 - Light Package (Release Date: 6 Sep 2013))