CIA updates rules for collecting and retaining info on US people

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday updated rules relating to the collection, retention and dissemination of information of U.S. persons, including putting a limit of five years on holding certain sensitive data and introducing restrictions for querying the data. The announcement by the spy agency comes a couple of days before a new administration under President-elect Donald Trump takes charge, and could address to an extent concerns expressed by civil rights groups about the collection and handling of information of U.S. persons in the course of overseas surveillance. Such information is collected by the CIA under Executive Order 12333. Earlier this month the director of the CIA John Brennan and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch approved the new rules, called the Attorney General Guidelines, to update the CIA's procedures, some of which had not been significantly updated since 1982, the agency said in a statement. The new rules come into force on March 18.