“The FBI has the authority to prohibit companies from talking about these requests,” reads a blog post about the new numbers on Google’s public policy blog. “But we’ve been trying to find a way to provide more information about the NSLs we get—particularly as people have voiced concerns about the increase in their use since 9/11. Starting today, we’re now including data about NSLs in our Transparency Report. We’re thankful to U.S. government officials for working with us to provide greater insight into the use of NSLs.”
NSLs have come under fire not just for their secrecy, but for their lack of judicial review; They require far less oversight than a search warrant or even a subpoena, can be issued by any FBI field office, and have been applied much more widely in the post-9/11 era. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called NSLs “one of the most frightening and invasive…of all the dangerous government surveillance powers that were expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act.”
Google specifies in an FAQ included with its report on NSLs that the letters can only legally seek “the name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records” of a Google user. Those outmoded legal terms mean that the FBI shouldn’t be able to get actual content data such as Gmail messages or private YouTube videos. Perhaps surprisingly, even IP addresses are off limits, Google says.
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