Internet service providers (ISPs) are not cooperating as much as they did previously with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in turning over data about customers’ email and web browsing. The change has forced the FBI to spend more time in court trying to get details about suspects’ electronic communications and browsing.

 

Until about two years ago, FBI agents were able to use administrative subpoenas known as national security letters which don’t require a court order to obtain information about who sent and received emails and what websites individuals visited.

 

But beginning in 2009, ISPs started limiting the information they gave to the FBI, turning over only customer names, addresses, length of service and phone billing records. As a result of this shift, agents started filing more court orders—more than four times as many in 2010 (96) than in 2009 (21) to obtain more information.

 

In an effort to help the Obama administration, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has introduced a bill that would allow the FBI to use national security letters to obtain “dialing, routing, addressing and signaling information.” The legislation, however, would not permit federal law enforcement to obtain the content of emails or other communications.

 

Civil libertarians oppose Leahy’s measure.

 

“Our view is data like email ‘to-from’ information is so sensitive that it ought to be available only with a court order,” Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told The Washington Post.

-Noel Brinekrhoff

 

FBI Going to Court More Often to Get Personal Internet-Usage Data (by Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post)