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Google Releases Data On FBI Spying

Posted by Soulskill on from the number-of-people-surprised:-0-999 dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to Wired, 'National Security Letters allow the government to get detailed information on Americans' finances and communications without oversight from a judge. The FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of NSLs and has even been reprimanded for abusing them.' It's significant, then, that Google has released data about how many NSLs they've received annually since 2009. The numbers are fuzzed — the FBI apparently worries that if we know how often they're spying on us, we can figure out who. But Google is able to say they've received from 0-999 letters each year for the past four years. And we know it's likely near the upper end of that range because they list the number of accounts affected, as well: always over a thousand."

7 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. We Need to Roll Back the PATRIOT Act by Karl+Cocknozzle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We've gone way too far with empowering the government. The time is now to roll back the "emergency" terrorism powers the government gave itself after 9/11. We are not "at war" with Al Qaeda in the United States. There are plenty of opportunities to catch terrorists without infringing on the rights of law-abiding Americans who have done nothing wrong.

    These powers were voted into place in a panic and now we're living with the consequences.

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    Who did what now?
    1. Re:We Need to Roll Back the PATRIOT Act by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Finish the PATRIOT act? Why do you hate America?

      You would vote for the COMMIE act, for sure.

    2. Re:We Need to Roll Back the PATRIOT Act by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One of my basic insights of life: When someone is running around screaming "emergency", a lot of the time they simply want people to shut down the smart part of their brain and do something they otherwise wouldn't.

      Some examples of what people often mean when they say "This is an emergency!":
      - Your boss: "Please work lots of overtime for no compensation."
      - A salesperson at your company: "Please work lots of overtime so I can get a big fat commission."
      - A salesperson selling to you: "Please don't think too hard about either the product or the price."
      - A politician: "Please stop complaining about this bill I'm going to shove through that hurts you and helps my friends."
      - A non-profit: "Please donate more time and money to our group, preferably without asking too many questions."
      - Some (thankfully not all) spousal partners: "Please give me more control over our shared resources so I can buy the things I want." Or "Please make me feel appreciated."
      - A friend or family member: "Please give me more of your time, money, and attention."

      So that's why you have to define what an emergency is and what it isn't. My personal definition: A problem where human lives or a very large amount of property is at stake, and swift action will demonstrably reduce the damage. That means that a heart attack is an emergency, a server down is a problem but not an emergency. In the case of the Patriot Act, all the useful emergency actions had been done several weeks earlier, and the emergency part of what happened was over when Congress passed the bill.

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      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    3. Re:We Need to Roll Back the PATRIOT Act by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Lol (but not really) at the person who thinks the PATRIOT act (or supporting it) has anything to do with patriotism or protecting US "freedoms".

    4. Re:We Need to Roll Back the PATRIOT Act by emho24 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It would be interesting to start up a White House petition asking for the repeal of the patriot act. "Interesting" may be a poor choice of words on my part, the official response would probably be more amusing than interesting.

      Two fun White House petitions might be:
      - repeal the Patriot Act
      - dismantle Homeland Security

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      You must gather your party before venturing forth.
  2. I never believed the hype about it by dkleinsc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "National Security Letters" were quite plainly search warrants and subpoenas without Fourth Amendment protections back when they were first proposed. And that's all they'll ever be: If the FBI had real evidence that somebody was a bad guy, they could have easily gone to a judge and said "We'd like to investigate this person, and here's why."

    Instead, we're heading into Kafka land: People investigated and/or locked up without charges, without evidence they can confront, without a chance of freedom, and punishment of death when it's all over.

    --
    I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    1. Re:I never believed the hype about it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Holder says drone strikes on US soil are legal. But then again I've been told by former president Carter that I'm a bigot so you shouldn't listen to me.