Apple Receives First National Security Letter

Apple revealed this week that it received a National Security Letter during the last six months of 2016. The news, which came as part of the company’s latest biannual transparency report, marks the first NSL Apple has reported receiving. The iPhone manufacturer released the report via a portal on...

FISC Approves 90-Day Extension of Section 215 Surveillance Authority

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has authorized a 90-day extension to the Section 215 bulk telephone collection program used by the National Security Agency, giving the agency through the end of February to run the program in the absence of legislation establishing a new...

Documents in Long-Running Yahoo FISC Challenge Case Published

During a long-running secret dispute between Yahoo and government officials over the constitutionality of orders from the federal government to turn over data belonging to Yahoo users, the company was facing fines of $250,000 for refusing to comply with the order. The revelation is contained in a...

Leahy Introduces Bill to End Bulk Call Record Collection

Sen. Patrick Leahy has introduced an updated, tougher version of the USA FREEDOM Act that would end the bulk collection of data under Section 215 of FISA and also would require the appointment of a panel of special legal advocates who would represent the interests of individual privacy and civil...

New Data Shows FBI Issued More Than 19k National Security Letters in 2013

The United States federal government issued more than 19,000 National Security Letters–perhaps its most powerful tool for domestic intelligence collection–in 2013, and those NSLs contained more than 38,000 individual requests for information. The new data was released by the Office of the Directo...

Clapper: NSA Queries Databases for Information on U.S. Persons

UPDATE–The NSA searches the data it collects incidentally on Americans, including phone calls and emails, during the course of terrorism investigations. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, confirmed the searches in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, the first time that such actions hav...

Verizon Updates 2013 Transparency Report With FISA Data

Verizon updated its transparency report yesterday, breaking down National Security Letter and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act FISA orders for the first and second halves of 2013. The telecommunications giant released its first transparency report in late January, responding to pressure from...

DNI Clapper Says Statement to Congress About NSA Data Collection Was 'Erroneous'

In a highly unusual move, James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said Tuesday that he misspoke when he told a Congressional committee in March that the National Security Agency does not assemble dossiers on Americans. Clapper said at the time that the agency does not do so...

NSA Whistleblower Snowden on PRISM, surveillance, privacy

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said a “continuing litany of lies” from senior U.S. leaders prompted his public uncovering of widespread surveillance of Americans’ phone calls and alleged data sharing between large technology companies and the government. In a two-hour online question-and-answer...

New Bill Would Declassify FISC Opinions

A group of eight senators from both parties have introduced a new bill that would require the attorney general to declassify as many of the rulings of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as possible as a way of bringing into the sunlight much of the law and opinion that guides the...

Clappers Says NSA Programs Fully Authorized and Necessary

The top U.S. intelligence official addressed the recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s covert cell-phone and email data collection surveillance programs on Thursday, saying that the programs have been ongoing for years, are fully authorized under U.S. law and that the leaks...