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posted by janrinok on Sunday January 29 2017, @04:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the just-give-us-everything,-OK? dept.

Twitter has revealed that it has received two FBI National Security Letters:

The FBI appeared to go beyond the scope of existing legal guidance in seeking certain kinds of internet records from Twitter as recently as last year, legal experts said, citing two warrantless surveillance orders the social media company published on Friday.

Twitter said its disclosures were the first time the company had been allowed to publicly reveal the secretive orders, which were delivered with gag orders when they were issued in 2015 and 2016. Their publication follows similar disclosures in recent months by other major internet companies, including Alphabet's Google and Yahoo. Each of the two new orders, known as national security letters (NSLs), specifically request a type of data known as electronic communication transaction records, which can include some email header data and browsing history, among other information.

In doing so, the orders bolster the belief among privacy advocates that the FBI has routinely used NSLs to seek internet records beyond the limitations set down in a 2008 Justice Department legal memo, which concluded such orders should be constrained to phone billing records.


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  • (Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Sunday January 29 2017, @05:21AM

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Sunday January 29 2017, @05:21AM (#460148)

    the day the US finally gets rid of this BAD LAW, I will rejoice.

    this is a huge embarassment to the US. secret courts and the inability to even discuss with your OWN LAWYER.

    this is so fucked up.

    part of me hopes someone goes rogue and lays some biblical style revenge against all those who WROTE those nsl's.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 29 2017, @03:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 29 2017, @03:26PM (#460254)

    But ze Reich needz Nazi Security Letters! Wir brauchen mehr Lebensraum!