Google Has To Provide Warrentless Information To The Fbi!

[watcharacters]

This is world wide. A judge in San Francisco ruled it is within the scope of the law that google must show records of activity of account holders. It is the long arm of the law.

[chrisinth]

The question that has to be asked is what has it got to do with the FBI for non-American users?

FBI, as in its name, denotes that it is responsible for federal investigation, not global.

[NeverSure]

The FBI certainly does work worldwide. Regarding the Boston Marathon Bombers:

"Special agents of the FBI and about 30 explosives experts form the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), are fanning out across the Boston area and into eastern Massachusetts. Rick DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI, refused to go into details about specifics of the investigation, but said: "We are working in various locations throughout the area. We continue to interview witnesses and process the crime scene."

He said: "Our mission is clear: to bring to justice those responsible for the marathon bombing. The American public wants answers, and we pledge to do everything possible to get those answers." The investigation would be worldwide, he added, "and we will go to the ends of the earth to identify the suspect or suspects who were responsible for this despicable crime." Link

My understanding of the Patriot Act is that surveillance can be used only when it involves people from other countries, such as wiretapping phone calls between the US and places like Somalia, or a known terrorist.

I hope this doesn't reach to everyone. If it does, look to Google to first appeal, and if losing, then stop caching the IP's of people who search. Watch for more people to use anonymous proxy servers.

[RKASA]

Well they sell the info to anyone that has the cash so whats the difference? The price maybe?

[lomatopo]

Maybe best to read up on a subject, and include some references?

A quick scan seems to indicate that the FBI issued NSLs - an NSL is a sort of a warrant - on 19 accounts or people, probably as part of a (hopefully) legitimate national security threat/investigation. Google pushed back. Appeals are on going. End of the world? Maybe not. Ideal? Definitely not.

In 2007, the Justice Department's inspector general found widespread violations in the FBI's use of the letters, including demands without proper authorization and information obtained in non-emergency circumstances.

The FBI has tightened oversight of the system. The agency made 16,511 National Security Letter requests for information regarding 7,201 people in 2011, the latest data available.

We can only hope that investigations are related to national security, and ultimately save lives. FWIW, I thought the NSA could see/hear everything anyway - without cause/warrants, re: FISA., but maybe they are protective of their surveillance/intel and don't share with the FBI?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/05/31/judge-google-fbi/2378799/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/01/judge-orders-google-to-gi_0_n_3371341.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100781516

[Somtamnication]

Been done for years. Yahoo has been doing it since the 90s. So did altavista, compuserve, etc etc. Even hushmail now has a backdoor for the feebees.

Very few offer truly reliable anon email services anymore.

[craigt3365]

Maybe the FBI is worried about activities like these???

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/639375-chinese-hack-new-danish-super-fighter-project/

www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/627728-s-korea-ready-for-more-cyberattacks;-banks-recover

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/642783-australian-lawmaker-confirms-china-hacked-spy-base

www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/616126-us-looking-at-action-against-china-cyberattacks