Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) was a United States Department of Defense (DoD) agency whose size and budget were classified.
[5] CIFA managed the database of "suspicious incidents" in the United States or the Joint Protection Enterprise Network (JPEN).
It was an intelligence and law enforcement system that was a near real-time sharing of raw non-validated information among DoD organizations and installations.
In addition, the Supreme Court of the United States found in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) the right to privacy against government intrusion was protected by the "penumbras" of other Constitutional provisions.
After ACLU filed multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding information gathering on peace groups and NBC did a report[10] citing a Quaker group planning an anti-enlistment action that was listed as a "threat", a review of CIFA activities was ordered by then Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone,[11] who stated at the time that it appeared that there had been several violations.