Google Releases Data On FBI Spying 104
An anonymous reader writes "According to Wired, 'National Security Letters allow the government to get detailed information on Americans' finances and communications without oversight from a judge. The FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of NSLs and has even been reprimanded for abusing them.' It's significant, then, that Google has released data about how many NSLs they've received annually since 2009. The numbers are fuzzed — the FBI apparently worries that if we know how often they're spying on us, we can figure out who. But Google is able to say they've received from 0-999 letters each year for the past four years. And we know it's likely near the upper end of that range because they list the number of accounts affected, as well: always over a thousand."
Re:We Need to Roll Back the PATRIOT Act (Score:5, Interesting)
Only less than a 1000? (Score:5, Interesting)
Taking a step back for just a moment, I can see an actual suspect (one in which they have gone and gotten a warrant on) having a mail account that has mailed xxx number of other emails - if they really think their warranted suspect is a terrorist threat then they will want to look into the email accounts/gchat logs of those he emailed.
I think the concept of needing to do this is ok in certain investigations but it needs needs more judicial oversight with checks and balances. Even if it's a judge saying "what investigation is this attached to?" and tying it to a subpoena'd suspect. I'd also like to make sure that this is only used for national security issue. I wouldn't want this flipping over into normal run of the mill criminal activities. I'd even go so far as to say "If evidence is found in this way it's off limits" as evidence so it doesn't have the temptation of being abused.
Re:We Need to Roll Back the PATRIOT Act (Score:5, Interesting)
Two fun White House petitions might be:
- repeal the Patriot Act
- dismantle Homeland Security
Re:I never believed the hype about it (Score:3, Interesting)
"What boggles my mind the most is that no one rises up, no one shouts, no one cries for a revolution"
The Ron Paul movement was the best organized resistance against the police state that We, The People could muster. It was a valiant effort, but the MSM and political establishment still crushed it easily.
I think the liberty movement is in re-appraisal mode right now. However, if there is one civil liberties issue that people care about, it's the 2nd Amendment. Hopefully we can leverage the anti-gun threat to inform people that gun control is just a piece of a systematic effort to destroy freedom in the USA.