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Google Reveals It Received Secret FBI Subpoena (theintercept.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Intercept: Google revealed Wednesday it had been released from an FBI gag order that came with a secret demand for its customers' personal information. The FBI secret subpoena, known as a national security letter, does not require a court approval. Investigators simply need to clear a low internal bar demonstrating that the information is "relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." The national security letter issued to Google was mentioned without fanfare in Google's latest bi-annual transparency report, which includes information on government requests for data the company received from around the world in the first half of 2016. Google received the secret subpoena in first half of 2015, according to the report. An accompanying blog post titled "Building on Surveillance Reform," also identified new countries that made requests -- Algeria, Belarus, and Saudi Arabia among them -- and reveals that Google saw an increase in requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But Google in its short blog post did not publish the contents of the actual letter the way other companies, including Yahoo, have done in recent months. Asked about plans to release the national security letter, a Google spokesperson told The Intercept it will release it, though it wouldn't say when or in what form it will do so. Google hasn't previously published any national security letters, though it's possible gag orders for prior demands are still in place. It's also unclear why Google wouldn't immediately publish the document -- unless the gag is only partially lifted, or the company is involved in ongoing litigation to challenge the order, neither of which were cited as reasons for holding it back
It's at the point now where an NSL letter could be generated for any frivolous crime. Caught shoplifting? Let's issue an NSL letter and target the guys entire family. Separate laws for the knights and lords. Common peasants will always be fucked.
Anyone who is still storing anything of any importance in the US or with a US company is essentially wilfully consenting to the US government snooping into their data for any use they see fit and storing it forever. It is abundantly clear that US companies cannot be trusted with personal data, even if the company itself means no harm. The US government has made them all complicit in its relentless war on privacy. Some fight it, others cooperate enthousiastically, but the end result is the same: the US government gets your data and the company that handed it over cannot even tell you.
First, Google has been released from the gag order on this NSL, so as I understand it Google could publish the letter now with no penalty.
Second, the constitutionality of these gag orders has been seriously challenged, so if Google was willing a fight they could probably publish any NSL they wished. Gag orders have historically been the purview of courts, and judges take a dim view of other people doing their job for them.
Third, it's safe to assume Google tracks revisions to their pages, so yes, they would soon know who made the 'mistake'. Also, a letter like this should be shared with extremely few people within the company, so it shouldn't be hard to follow the chain until suspicious activity is found. Punishment for this sort of mishandling would be limited to a fine, however, so the FBI would go after Google's deep pockets rather than try to pin the crime on an individual. The employee should be safe from criminal charges, though not, presumably, from Google discipline.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
When Bush is out of the White House, Obama - the Constitutional scholar who KNOWS what our rights are - will put a stop to this, just like he promised!
With Hillary as her Secretary of State, we're set up for at least 16 years of a transparent government that actually respects us!
And the corruption and sellouts to banksters will end!
With Democrats set to take control of the House, Senate, and the White House - and in TOTAL control of the US government - I bet we even get a real health-care system instead of the current one we have, with skyrocketing insurance premiums designed to funnel money to insurance companies.
WHY WOULD ANYONE VOTE FOR ANYONE BUT A DEMOCRAT?!?!?!