Slashdot Mirror
Google Asks Federal Judge To Challenge National Security Letters
mk1004 writes "From Bloomberg and the Washington Post come reports that Google is petitioning a federal court to resist compliance with a national security letter from the FBI. This comes two weeks after the U.S. District Judge in San Francisco ruled that NSLs are unconstitutional because they 'violate the First Amendment and separation of powers principles.' Google filed a petition to 'set aside the legal process,' citing a provision that allows judges to modify or deny NSLs that are 'unreasonable, oppressive, or otherwise unlawful.' EFF attorney Matt Zimmerman was quoted as saying, 'the people who are in the best position to challenge the practice are people like Google. So far no one has really stood up for their users.'"
Google living up to its motto?
... hate Amerikuh?
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Predicted that this would happen: http://news.cnet.com/Report-FBIs-snooping-did-not-follow-rules/2100-1028_3-6166015.html absolutely nobody.
Maybe somebody will listen, because, certainly nobody is listening to any of us poor slobs.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Google = awesome
Microsoft = adequate
Apple = shit
Anyone else think this could be a publicity stunt? As they appear to be holding up in the publics eye, I'm sure they're like the majority of tele-com companies and just pass our info right on to the government with no questions asked.
http://theworkaround.com/
'the people who are in the best position to challenge the practice are people like Google.
Google isn't a person.
A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
zsfgvdszf
Google gets a lot of hate and are often put into the same category as other big corporations, but they do a lot of work on keeping the web free and "open", and this:
puts them in a league apart from the others, even though they aren't perfect.
I do dread the day they become "evil" like everyone else though; I expect it's just a matter of time.
But so far, despite their mis-steps and their massive collection of users' data, they remain sui generis.
What is a National Security Letter - is that Nicholas Cage and Jon Voight had with them in National Treasure?
When China requested all sorts of data about dissidents, Google gave nothing and was harassed badly. In fact, it was so bad, the Google left.
Now, Yahoo and MS are buddies with Chinese leaders. Have been from the gitgo. Gates has given China all sorts of things such as access to MS source code (ever wonder why China is busy cracking Windows systems? ). Heck, he is giving all sorts of American technology to them. Even now, rather than work on his reactor here, he took it to China. Insane. If he really wanted to do that here, he could have requested Alaska or in the middle of one of our deserts. Personally, I would have picked Alaska.
Now, Google is fighting SOME of the NSLs here as well. It is not the NSLs from CIA/NSA that they are fighting. It is the NSLs from the FBI. NSL's were NEVER intended to go to the FBI since that is spying on Americans. That is far too much power for ANYBODY. And it is obvious that the FBI is operating corruptly today as much as it was under W. The reason is that the admin has LIMITED control over the employees. They have control over their appointments. But even then, the employees simply ignore whoever gets in their way.
So, why is Google fighting this and Yahoo, MS, and Apple are JUST FINE with this? Basically, all of those companies are as corrupt as they come. If Bill Gates had even a SHRED of decency about him, he would have joined Google. He MIGHT join them now, but the fact that he does not object to the Chinese gov. and what they do to their citizens, tells me that Gates really does not care about America either.
It really is not complicated. Gates is pure slime. So are MS, Yahoo, and Apple.
After reading over and over again in stories here about the EFF, and their work as one of the few organizations that really stands up for the common internet user, I finally decided they are really worth my support and I became an EFF member recently. It's eff.org/donate/ if you are interested in supporting them, too.
The FBI, CIA, IRS, ATF, Mafia, Traid, ....
Google - delete it while you can... seriously... for your benefit and mine.
Same goes for Facebook... although I don't get the idea you're smart enough to understand or even care. Yeah, you. We all get to learn from your mistakes.
The whole NSL thing was for bullying small entities with the idea that their lawyers couldn't even talk to other lawyers about the letters. That stops working when you have an organized legal department like Google's that WANTS to picka fight. They probably have sacks of NSLs and have attached the "homework" that shows a large number X are really nothing more that police harassment or information not really allowed with normal warrants.
All it takes is Google finding a judge willing to set aside that part of the law that says JUDGES can't review NSLs either and grab him a few file boxes of interesting material.
Microsoft is misunderstood. It is a company that wants to do evil, but is often poorly managed.