TechCrunch is reporting that Microsoft has successfully managed to challenge a National Security Letter (NSL) from the FBI that included a gag order. The gist is simple: according to Microsoft they received an NSL requesting "basic subscriber information" regarding an "enterprise" customer; i.e. the FBI was after the metadata of a large Microsoft client.
As is normal for NSLs, the letter banned Microsoft from disclosing to anyone that the data had been requested. Microsoft didn't think that reasonable and filed a challenge resulting in the FBI retracting its request. What's perhaps more interesting isn't that a single National Security Letter was beaten back, but how Microsoft argued its case which could, in theory, be used by others to defeat other NSLs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 23 2014, @04:35PM
NSLs are unconstitutional, unethical, and immoral. Nothing was defeated here. The judicial papers leaked by courageous folks have shown other NSLs have been withdrawn in the past after being challenged.
Only through the abolition of NSLs can they be defeated!