Surveillance Tools at Issue in Lawsuit

The American Civil Liberties Union will be in federal court July 17 as it seeks to force the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to detail how often they use surveillance tools that capture the email addresses contacted, phone numbers called and websites visited by a person.

Such tools are known as pen register and trace-and-track technology, and while the government believes they're critical for law enforcement, privacy advocates are concerned about the lack of transparency on how often the searches are used. The ACLU says the Justice Department has failed to publicly report, as required annually by federal law, the use of such technology since 2009 and has previously failed to meet it reporting obligations. The ACLU filed the suit in Manhattan federal court to force the Justice Department to release data on searches in 2010 and in 2011 by the department's criminal division. Several other agencies also are targeted in the suit, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.