FBI Continues To Use Secret Subpoenas To Collect Personal Data On Us From 'Scores' Of Companies

[easyt65]

"The F.B.I. has used secret subpoenas to obtain personal data from far more companies than previously disclosed, newly released documents show.

The requests, which the F.B.I. says are critical to its counterterrorism efforts, have raised privacy concerns for years but have been associated mainly with tech companies. Now, records show how far beyond Silicon Valley the practice extends — encompassing scores of banks, credit agencies, cellphone carriers and even universities.

The demands can scoop up a variety of information, including usernames, locations, IP addresses and records of purchases. They don’t require a judge’s approval and usually come with a gag order, leaving them shrouded in secrecy. Fewer than 20 entities, most of them tech companies, have ever revealed that they’ve received the subpoenas, known as national security letters."


The fact that the FBI - who committed FISA Court Abuses under FBI Director Mueller and it appears under FBI Director Comey as well, who used foreign intelligence agencies and foreign spies in an attempted coup against the president of the United States, whose former Director, Deputy Director, and Agent has been recommended for Indictment - the fact that THIS FBI has had and continues to have the ability to spy on / seize so much personal information on the American people with virtually no oversight or accountability is truly frightening.

The FBI has already proven that it can NOT ne entrusted with so much incredible power; yet, this is still going on....


Secret F.B.I. Subpoenas Scoop Up Personal Data From Scores of Companies - ENM NEWS


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[Harpy Eagle]

You didn’t really think they had ever stopped...did you?

 

[easyt65]

The FBI has acquired 500,000 SECRET Subpoenas since 2001....

"The documents provide information on about 750 of the subpoenas — representing a small but telling fraction of the half-million issued since 2001, when the Patriot Act expanded their powers."


...and the documents reveal a vast number of these SECRET DATA MINING operations will NEVER be revealed . exposed by the FBI:

"The Justice Department’s interpretation of those instructions has left many letters secret indefinitely. Department guidelines say the gag orders must be evaluated three years after an investigation starts and also when an investigation is closed. But a federal judge noted “several large loopholes,” suggesting that “a large swath” of gag orders might never be reviewed."


“That’s the problem with the Freedom Act: It procedurally pretended to solve the problem,” he said. “But the whole structure of this involves presumption in favor of the government for perpetual sealing.”

 

[easyt65]

You didn’t really think they had ever stopped...did you?

Me? No., but there are a lot of naive / stupid people out there.....

 

[Oddball]

All done under the auspices of the idiotic, due process crushing Patriot Act, no doubt.

I said that was a seriously stupid idea, way back in '02.

 

[mdk]

I remember gassing on and on about how dreadful the Patriot Act was, but I was told that I hated America and wanted the terrorists to win.

 

[easyt65]

'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility'

The FBI has demonstrated for decades it is incapable of handling this power / responsibility.

IMO, such power to basically do what you want to do through secret subpoenas kept hidden by gag orders is perhaps what gave James Comey his 'God-Complex', the belief that he knew what was best for the entire country and that he was the only man who could save the country from a President he did not like and whose policies he did not agree with.

Similarly, there have been such cases with doctors, having the power to defeat death / save lives, resulting in a belief that they are better than anyone, know more than anyone, above reproach / questioning.

'Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely'.