national security letter Let FBI to spy Google customer
A security letter allows the national government to obtain detailed information on finance and communications of Americans without a warrant. NSL is the FBI requests that require Internet service providers, credit card companies, financial institutions and companies like Google to hand over confidential documents to their customers, such as subscriber information, numbers telephone and address written email, websites visited and more as long as the FBI says the information is "relevant" to an investigation
. it is illegal for any record keeper as an ISP or Google to disclose that he received a letter of national security. But having reached an agreement with the Obama administration, yesterday Google has become the first company to publish data relating to the volume NSL is received. Google released a "range" of times he received NSL demanding that he disclose account information.
For each year from 09 to 2012, Google said it has received "0-999" national security letter. As Legal Director of Google explained, beaches have been reported because of that exact figures FBI concerns could reveal details of the investigation.
Under the Patriot Act, Google or other receiving NSL must disclose the requested information if authorities say the request is "relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or activities clandestine intelligence. "
national security letter is a powerful tool, because they do not require court approval, and they come with a built-in gag order, preventing the recipient to reveal that they received an NSL. an FBI agent looking into an anti-terrorism cases can be self-issue an NSL to a credit bureau company, ISP or phone with only the sign-off of the special agent in charge of their office. Since a warrant is not required, it raises the possibility of abuse.
in a Department of Justice audit in 07, the FBI was convicted of abusing his power NSL abusing several times. The FBI paid companies like AT & T and Verizon to access phone records paperless and in some cases, companies have written the NSL for the FBI.
That said, kudos to Google for trying to be transparent on this issue despite the national security concerns of the Obama administration.
Courtesy of Wired "Google said the FBI is secretly spying on some of its customers"
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