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Google Reveals It Received Secret FBI Subpoena (theintercept.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the top-secret dept.

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

13 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. That's it... by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm going to write my congressmen and demand to know if they are in the pocket of major technology companies, and if not, offer them a list of suggestions.

    --
    How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  2. Anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Anything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Common peasants will always be fucked.

      Judging from the candidates they nominate, it appears that is the way they like it and want more of the same. Otherwise they would vote every incumbent out of the house instead of reelecting 95% of them. So, please, place the blame where it belongs. Remember, the "system" is us.

  3. Who would have thought? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Who would have thought? by arth1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      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

      This is nothing new, as the United States has next to no data protection laws, and even fewer international agreements. US companies have always carried a risk of them selling the data to others, including the government. What changed post-2011 is that it's now easier for US government agencies to get data without bidding for it.

  4. What happens, when a gag order is violated? by allo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let's say somebody accidentally publishes the scan of the incoming letter on the homepage. Just for a short time, until he err notices. Internally nobody knows, who make this mistake, but now several people downloaded it and it's trending on reddit.

    What happens next?

    1. Re:What happens, when a gag order is violated? by allo · · Score: 2

      I always wonder, why a NSL for example for google doesn't leak. First enough people know it and its stored somewhere insecure and next it leaks and nobody knows what happend. Of course the leak was stopped and everybody urged to delete it, yes even on reddit. There isn't much more you can do, when such an accident happened ...

    2. Re:What happens, when a gag order is violated? by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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?
    3. Re:What happens, when a gag order is violated? by EETech1 · · Score: 2

      I wonder if you could use Google to find the leaked Google NSL online?

  5. Re: The Googleplex is the Surveillance State by arth1 · · Score: 2

    If they want to be transparent they should add more glass.

    Google Glass was such a nice way of identifying hipsters.

  6. You don't know? by waspleg · · Score: 2

    Then the witch hunt begins to ruin that persons life either financially (court, unemployable after), through jail time, or both.

    They *WILL* sacrifice someone innocent or not, nobody knows who did it isn't acceptable to the gov't.

  7. Anything by jarablue · · Score: 2

    So basically if you get caught shoplifting, they'll issue an NSL and target your entire family because er, shoplifting in itself is a national security issue? Where does the line get drawn? They can get whatever they want whenever they want and target you if some prosecutor is pissed? Must be nice for the laws to apply to the common peasants only. The lords and knights, aka cops, prosecutors and judges have different rules to play by right?

  8. Transparency and Open Government by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 2

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/the...
    Sure...you go with that thought process.