FBI Served Secret Subpoenas to a Video Game Developer, Antivirus Maker, and More

guest · Sep 20, 2019

FBI Served Secret Subpoenas to a Video Game Developer, Antivirus Maker, and More
September 20, 2019
https://gizmodo.com/fbi-served-secret-subpoenas-to-a-video-game-developer-1838291239

The names of more than 120 companies secretly served FBI subpoenas for their customers’ personal data were revealed on Friday, including a slew of U.S. banks, cellphone providers, and a leading antivirus software maker.

Known as national security letters (NSL), the subpoenas are a tool commonly used by FBI counterterrorism agents when seeking individuals’ communication and financial histories. No judge oversees their use.
The letters allow the FBI to demand access to limited types of information, most of which may be described as “metadata”—the names of email senders and recipients and the dates and times that messages were sent, for example

But on Friday, the New York Times published four documents with details on 750 NSLs issued as far back as 2016. The paper described the documents—obtained by digital-rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit—as a “small but telling fraction” of the more than 500,000 letters issued since 2001, when passage of the Patriot Act greatly expanded the number of FBI officials who could sign them.
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While it’s widely known that tech companies such as Google and Facebook are routinely served NSLs, the documents—751 letters informing companies that their gag orders had been lifted—offer new insight into the scope of the businesses receiving them: not only banks (big and small), but universities, money-transfer services, domain registrars, and voice-over-internet (VoIP) providers. Even video game companies.
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guest · Dec 14, 2019

FBI secretly demands a ton of consumer data from credit agencies. Now lawmakers want answers
December 15, 2019
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/14/fbi-national-security-letter-credit-agencies/

Recently released documents revealed the FBI has for years secretly demanded vast amounts of Americans’ consumer and financial information from the largest U.S. credit agencies.
[...] these letters have no judicial oversight and are typically filed with a gag order, preventing the recipient from disclosing the demand to anyone else — including the target of the letter.

Tech companies have used “transparency reports” to inform their users of government demands for their data. But other major data collectors, like credit agencies, have failed to publish their figures altogether.
Three lawmakers — Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren, and Republican senator Rand Paul — have sent letters to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, expressing their “alarm” as to why the credit giants have failed to disclose the number of government demands for consumer data they receive.

“Because your company holds so much potentially sensitive data on so many Americans and collects this information without obtaining consent from these individuals, you have a responsibility to be transparent about how you handle that data,” the letters said.
The senators have given the agencies until December 27 to disclose the number of demands each has received.
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Wyden, Warren and Paul Ask Credit Reporting Agencies for Transparency About Their Handling of FBI Requests for Consumer Financial Data

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FBI Served Secret Subpoenas to a Video Game Developer, Antivirus Maker, and More

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