Civil Liberties and Privacy Office

The ODNI's Civil Liberties and Privacy Office (CLPO) is headed by the Civil Liberties Protection Officer, a position established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), and reports directly to the DNI.

The goal of the CLPO is to help the Intelligence Community accomplish its national security mission in a way that remains true to the Constitution and protects privacy and civil liberties. Under the IRTPA, the CLPO's duties include ensuring that the protection of civil liberties and privacy is appropriately incorporated in the policies of the ODNI and the Intelligence Community, overseeing compliance by the ODNI with legal requirements relating to civil liberties and privacy, reviewing complaints about potential abuses of privacy and civil liberties in ODNI programs and activities.

Perhaps more relevant to IARPA, the CLPO is also charged with ensuring that technologies sustain, and do not erode, privacy. As the Intelligence Community seeks to use new tools, techniques, and approaches to protect civil liberties and privacy.

The CLPO works through the Intelligence Community's civil liberties protection infrastructure &mdash; and recommends improvements where needed &mdash; to ensure that privacy and civil liberties issues are identified and addressed as early as feasible, and that safeguards are formulated and implemented to protect privacy and civil liberties. The CLPO enhances, and does not replace, the civil liberties protection functions of existing offices and mechanisms, and seeks to ensure that new protective functions and mechanisms &mdash; such as civil liberties positions as they are created in other agencies, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board &mdash; interact effectively with the Intelligence Community to further strengthen privacy and civil liberties safeguards.