The CIA is telling us how the agency uses Americans' data

You can now read about how the CIA uses the data it has gathered on Americans.

The agency on Wednesday published its rules for data collection on American citizens, updating them for the digital age and making them readily available for the first time.

The CIA collects information in huge swaths that are perhaps impossible to comb through. The agency's guidelines lay out plans to ensure that the agency only holds onto U.S. citizen data it believes it needs to keep.

"...specifically designated officials must document the purpose of the collection activity, how the data was acquired, what steps were taken to limit the collection to the smallest subset containing the information necessary to achieve the purpose of the collection, and further determine how sensitive the acquired data is so that appropriate controls regarding access, querying, and retention may be imposed," the guidelines say.

The rules also outline, in vague terms, the limits on who has access to some of the citizen data stored by the CIA. Any CIA agent requests for "data subject to exceptional handling requirements" must be related to the agency's "authorized intelligence activities," meaning folks at the agency can't just ask for stuff off the cuff. They'll also be required to provide a statement that lays out the reason they need the information they're looking for.

"Electronic communications" that are of particular interest to the agency (for example, any emails that they think are "exceptional") have to be destroyed after five years, a rule that did not previously exist. Less extraordinary bits of communication, however, can be kept for 25 years.