The Pentagon on Wednesday published revised procedures governing the collection, retention, and dissemination of intelligence concerning American citizens.

Outlined within the pages of DoD Manual 5240.01, “Procedures Governing the Conduct of DoD Intelligence Activities,” the changes pertain to how the U.S. military and assorted government agencies sweep up and store information concerning U.S. persons, including individuals whose details are incidentally collected during the course of investigating foreign targets.

The manual updates provisions first laid out in an Executive Order signed by President Reagan in 1982, in turn incorporating new language and instructions for intelligence gathering to apply in a digitally-connected world that would have been impossible to imagine 30 years earlier.

“The procedures were carefully and methodically developed in 1982 and they’ve served us well for the many years since then,” Michael Mahar, the Pentagon’s senior intelligence oversight official, told DoD News. “But we’ve reached the point now that, due to changes in technology, law and intelligence-collection practices, we were compelled to do a significant overhaul.”

“We went line by line, procedure by procedure,” Mr. Mahar added, all while Pentagon officials went over proposed changes with top-ranking members of the intelligence community, including National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and National Security Agency employees, among others.

Read More: Washington Times

Featured Image – Senior staff members at the National Security Agency headquarters on Fort Meade, Md. – DVIDS