Recipient Of FBI National Security Letter Can Finally Reveal Details, 11 Years Later

Back in October, we followed up on a much older story concerning Nicholas Merrill, the owner of Calyx Internet Access, who back in 2004 had received one of the FBI's infamous National Security Letters (NSLs) complete with a total gag order on it. NSLs have long been widely abused by the FBI to (unconstitutionally) get around the 4th Amendment, demanding all sorts of information from private parties and then putting a perpetual gag order on the request, which also would seem to violate the 1st Amendment. Merrill fought back against the NSL -- at first anonymously because he wasn't even allowed to admit to anyone that he'd received one. In 2010, Merrill was finally granted the right to admit that he had received an NSL and that he was fighting it. But he still couldn't reveal much more than that.

The October ruling said that the entire gag order needed to be lifted, and that Merrill should be able to finally reveal the actual NSL -- and that has now happened. You can see the ridiculously broad list of information that was demanded from Merrill.

Merrill is now able to reveal that the FBI believes it can force online companies to turn over the following information simply by sending an NSL demanding it: an individual's complete web browsing history; the IP addresses of everyone a person has corresponded with; and records of all online purchases. The FBI also claims authority to obtain cell-site location information with an NSL, which effectively turns a cell phone into a location tracking device. In court filings, the FBI said that at some point it stopped gathering location data as a matter of policy, but that it could secretly choose to resume the practice under existing authority.

"For more than a decade, the FBI has been demanding extremely sensitive personal information about private citizens just by issuing letters to online companies like mine," said Mr. Merrill. "The FBI has interpreted its NSL authority to encompass the websites we read, the web searches we conduct, the people we contact, and the places we go. This kind of data reveals the most intimate details of our lives, including our political activities, religious affiliations, private relationships, and even our private thoughts and beliefs," he explained.

As Marcy Wheeler notes, the depth of information that the NSL was getting willy nilly with no oversight at all through NSLs is rather astounding.

This is what the government means when it does "connection" chaining: gluing together every fragment of your online life together to see it all.

The ACLU has also helpfully created a graphic showing the gradual revealing of this NSL, with each part of the legal fight unmasking a bit more over the course of this decade-plus battle: Along with the NSL details, Merrill was also able to release an unredacted version of October's ruling -- and we'll deal with that in a separate post, so stay tuned.

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