The FBI’s use of gag orders to prevent companies from disclosing the number and details of national security letters does not run afoul of the First Amendment, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.
In response to the mass shooting in the Orlando nightclub, Senate Republicans are proposing to expand the FBI’s authority to use surveillance without a warrant.
A new bill would give the FBI more flexibility to gain warrantless access to online records of Americans.
The FBI can continue to keep “national security letters” secret after issuing them to demand customer records from phone companies, banks and others.
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Companies like Google and Microsoft have long expressed frustration with the inability to disclose when they’ve received a secretive compliance order from the FBI seeking records. Under a new FBI policy, companies will be able to disclose the “national security letters,” but only “at the earlier of three years after the…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A federal appeals court is expected to decide soon whether the FBI’s “national security letters” are constitutional, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The letters are a demand for customer information in terrorism-related cases, allowing the FBI to obtain information without a warrant. San Francisco U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI has unintentionally spied on Americans who were not the targets of investigations because of routine, avoidable mistakes, the National Journal reports. The Justice Department’s inspector general discovered that the FBI sometimes collected data on the wrong people because of typographical errors. “We found that the FBI’s corrective measures have not…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Facebook are calling for more disclosure of secret requests to hand over date of users, The Guardian reports. “Permitting greater transparency on the aggregate volume and scope of national security requests, including Fisa orders, would help the community understand and debate these important issues,” Microsoft said in an…
