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Post by alanbond on Apr 2, 2016 2:40:41 GMT 4
National security letters are written demands from the FBI that compel internet service providers, credit companies, financial institutions, and others to hand over confidential records about their customers, such as subscriber information, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, websites visited, and more. NSLs have been used since the 1980s, but the Patriot Act expanded the kinds of records that could be obtained with them. They do not require court approval, and, most importantly, they come with a built-in gag order that prevents the recipient from disclosing that they have received an order. This makes the government’s use of them ripe for abuse; and indeed DoJ inspector general reports have uncovered abuses of the FBI’s NSL authority.
The letters are one of the FBI’s most powerful tools; but there is little oversight of them and they are rarely discussed inside or outside Congress. The public has become aware of only a handful of some 300,000 NSLs handed out over the last decade, and those became public only after the recipients launched legal battles opposing them. Although recipients of an NSL can challenge them in court, few companies that received one have done so
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Post by congregatio on Apr 2, 2016 2:53:59 GMT 4
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