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 Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 1:15 pm |
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This may be of interest to advanced researchers:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207601080&subSection=Privacy
FBI Withdraws Probe Of Wayback Machine Users
The settlement stems from a lawsuit claiming the FBI's request for
information about the Internet Archive's Web library violated the First
Amendment.
By K.C. Jones
InformationWeek
May 8, 2008 03:40 PM
The FBI has withdrawn a letter demanding information about an Internet
Archive user's records.
In November, the FBI sent the nonprofit digital library a National Security
Letter demanding personal information about an Internet Archive user. The
letter requested the person's name, address, and other electronic records
pertaining to the user.
The Internet Archive gives Web surfers access to the Wayback Machine, an
archive of Web pages, many of which are no longer available.
It voluntarily provided publicly available information and identified more
records that were not publicly available. At the same time, the Internet
Archive sued to withhold the information contained in the nonpublic records.
It claimed the letter violated free-speech rights -- since it stated that
the library's founder could not discuss the letter with anyone except the
library's attorneys.
The FBI announced this week that it settled the lawsuit by withdrawing the
letter. Some parts of the once-sealed lawsuit are now public, but both
parties agreed not to disclose certain portions of the letter and other
documents.
"The information requested in the National Security Letter was relevant to
an ongoing, authorized national security investigation," John Miller,
assistant director of the FBI Office of Public Affairs, said in a statement.
"National Security Letters remain indispensable tools for national security
investigations and permit the FBI to gather the basic building blocks for
our counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations."
The government uses National Security Letters to get information from banks,
credit reporting companies, and Internet service providers, among others,
during investigations. It's standard practice for investigators to tell
recipients they are prohibited from discussing the letters.
Critics contend that the letters are unconstitutional because of their
secrecy, lack of oversight, and the recipients' limited ability to fight
them.
Congress amended a provision of the Patriot Act in 2006 to limit the FBI's
power to demand library records through the use of National Security
Letters. Members of Congress are promoting legislation that would further
restrict investigators' freedom to use the letters. |
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| Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 1:15 pm |
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