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

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

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

mood Updates Team

Google’s Secret ‘Project Nightingale’ Gathers Personal Health Data on Millions of Americans

Tech firms must give up their awkward secret: Humans

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