# Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) created a statutory framework for specified foreign-intelligence collection and established the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court|FISC]]. It contains several distinct authorities. Traditional electronic-surveillance and physical-search orders generally use individualized applications and findings tied to a foreign power or an agent of one. Pen-register/trap-and-trace and business-record provisions use different standards. [[FISA Section 702|Section 702]], added in 2008, is a separate programmatic regime. ## Notebook evidence [[Scanned_20260730-1830]], especially PDF pages 5–18, reconstructs FISA by moving among probable cause, court procedure, business records, [[Pen Register|pen registers]], [[Trap and Trace Device|trap-and-trace devices]], providers, and Section 702. The notebook was right to see these as parts of one legal control plane, but some page-level notes compress their different thresholds and procedures. ## Analytical distinction FISA is not synonymous with any one surveillance program. A precise record should identify the authority, target category, acquisition method, approving body, compelled intermediary, query rules, dissemination rules, and later evidentiary use separately. ## Related notes [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]] · [[FISA Amendments Act of 2008]] · [[FISA Section 702]] · [[USA FREEDOM Act]] · [[Secret Oversight]] ## Source - [[Scanned_20260730-1830]], PDF pages 5–18.