By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The FBI can continue to keep “national security letters” secret after issuing them to demand customer records from phone companies, banks and others, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled the letters don’t violate freedom of speech and are permitted after Congress passed the USA Freedom Act last year.
Illston said government showed the need to keep confidential three of the four letters issued to unidentified technology companies in 2011 and 2013. The fourth letter won’t be disclosed pending a government appeal.
Recipients of national security letters “still can be gagged at the FBI’s say-so, without any procedural protections, time limits or judicial oversight,” said attorney Andrew Crocker of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
