Last week I read on Schneier’s blog about the rampant abuses of new powers granted under the Patriot Act. Today I read over on the Washington Post that the new rules from the FBI’s general counsel directs agents to use better discretion and to ditch the paperwork.
Wasn’t it the improper paperwork that led us to discover the FBI improperly obtained data? How does instructing agents to limit requests to the most dire situations, to not file follow-up paperwork (grand jury subpoena or national security letter), and to ask for the data orally fix the problem?
Here is the new process:
- FBI suspects you of a crime.
- FBI calls the phone/ISP/bank/etc. and asks for data under the emergency provision.
- The company takes their word for it and provides the data.
- FBI doesn’t have to obtain warrant and receives data without a single sheet of paperwork.
Anyone see how this could be abused? Forget judicial oversight, now they don’t even have agency oversight.
Sickening…
