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FBI Issued 19,000 National Security Letters In 2013
Trailrunner7 writes The United States federal government issued more than 19,000 National Security Letters – perhaps its most powerful tool for domestic intelligence collection – in 2013, and those NSLs contained more than 38,000 individual requests for information. The new data was released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday as part of its effort to comply with a directive from President Obama to declassify and release as much information as possible about a variety of tools that the government uses to collect intelligence. The directive came in the immediate aftermath of the first revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's capabilities, methods and use of legal authorities.
The use of NSLs is far from new, dating back several decades. But their use was expanded greatly after 9/11 and NSLs are different from other tools in a number of ways, perhaps most importantly in the fact that recipients typically are prohibited from even disclosing the fact that they received an NSL. Successfully fighting an NSL is a rare thing, and privacy advocates have been after the government for years to release data on their use of the letters and the number of NSLs issued. Now, the ODNI is putting some of that information into the public record."
The use of NSLs is far from new, dating back several decades. But their use was expanded greatly after 9/11 and NSLs are different from other tools in a number of ways, perhaps most importantly in the fact that recipients typically are prohibited from even disclosing the fact that they received an NSL. Successfully fighting an NSL is a rare thing, and privacy advocates have been after the government for years to release data on their use of the letters and the number of NSLs issued. Now, the ODNI is putting some of that information into the public record."
Secret warrants you can't challenge are the same as not needing one at all.
Be aware that, NSLs and FISA request are the same thing, go figure, so by releasing the number of NSLs they are at the same time hiding the number of FISA request which could be any number
http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/userdatarequests/US/
Foreign Intelligence Surveillence Act (FISA) requests are court orders that can require U.S. companies to hand over personal information in national security investigations.
National Security Letters (NSLs) are requests authorized by the FBI that can require U.S. companies to hand over "the name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records" of a subscriber for use in national security investigations. They don't require a court order and cannot be used to obtain anything else from Google, such as Gmail content, search queries, YouTube videos or user IP addresses.
This legal jargon only servers the purpose of turning any rational conversation about it into a buzzword fight.
The reality is there are several types of secret court orders sent to individuals and cloud services companies. And there is one kind of secret order that is so secret we know nothing about, not even its quantity.
19,000? Sounds like they're not doing a very good job securing our nation if they need that many, because it's proof that either we have terrorists on every street corner or they don't know what they're doing and therefore don't know where the terrorists are.
Before anybody replies, yes, I know what this is really proof of unfortunately.
If ever there was a time for massive civil disobedience, this is it. Organized, unified disclosure of NSL's would make clear that we refuse to be subjected to the tools of a totalitarian state. Regards, Anonymous Coward :|
A few details did slip out over the years via the "Connecticut Four" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and others who went to open courts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05...
http://www.americanlibrariesma...
National Security Letters (January 10, 2011)
https://www.aclu.org/national-...
"...web sites a person visits, a list of e-mail addresses with which a person has corresponded, or even unmask the identity of a person who has posted anonymous speech on a political website."
" provision also allows the FBI to forbid or "gag" anyone who receives an NSL from telling anyone about the record demand. "
FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge (May 7, 2008)
https://www.eff.org/press/arch...
"a digital library recognized by the state of California -- and its attorneys in November of 2007. The letter asked for personal information about one of the Archive's users, including the individual's name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user."
FBI Backs Off From Secret Order for Data After Lawsuit (May 8, 2008)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
a blatant violation of the US Constitution.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I ordered a few pounds of potassium perchlorate and various forms of aluminum power. That is enough to get you a letter from the US Justice Department. A nice letter reminding me that making, possessing, and using explosives are illegal without a permit.
The political issues concerning the border are just there to distract people like you from the actual reasons we have so many illegal immigrants, which is because the people in power want them employed here. The attention is focused on the border, and not on the number who entered legally but overstayed their visas, and definitely not on the fact that we only pretend to punish the actual source of illegal immigration, the people who employ them, intentionally and because they are cheap labor.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways