Intelligence Community Policy Framework forCommercially Available Information

The Intelligence Community (IC) uses commercially available information (CAI) in a range of scenarios; and given the increasingly important role it is playing in our work while also carrying the risk of revealing sensitive information about individuals, we are proactively disclosing this framework, which we will continue to refine, clarify, and strengthen. The framework augments each IC element’s Attorney General Guidelines and establishes a common baseline for how the IC accesses, collects, and processes CAI, while allowing individual IC elements flexibility to operate in the manner best suited to meet their mission needs and protect privacy and civil liberties. The framework is the culmination of deliberate work to study this issue, to include the Director of National Intelligence convening a Senior Advisory Group Panel that issued recommendations the IC accepted and that the framework reflects.

Definition: We define CAI as any data or other information that is of a type customarily made available or obtainable and sold, leased, or licensed to the general public or to non-governmental entities for purposes other than governmental uses. CAI also includes data and information for exclusive government use, knowingly and voluntarily provided by, procured from, or made accessible by corporate entities at the request of a government entity, or on their own initiative. As such, CAI does not include information obtained through compulsory process, such as a court order or directive under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

View the official statement here.