The FBI is “not required to get court approval to issue an NSL,” the FAQ adds. In order to have the needed data granted, it is sufficient for the agency to enclose a document proving relevance to an “authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” The FBI also has the power to prohibit disclosure of the fact that an NSL was received in the first place.
Google has become the first company to ever release data on the volume of NSL requests. All internet companies and ISPs, as well as credit companies and financial institutions, can receive NSLs from the federal government.
The lack of court oversight makes extensive abuse and misuse of these highly secretive requests possible, Wired stated on Tuesday, telling of known cases of such abuse. The US Justice Department revealed in 2007 that the FBI agents could “illegally look”at customer records of certain companies with no paperwork involved at all.According the DOJ report with the latest available figures, the total number of NSLs issued by the FBI in 2011 is just over 16,500.
The NSL stats are not included in Google’s biannual Transparency Report, which showed 42,327 requests for personal data were submitted to the company by national governments and law enforcement agencies in 2012 alone. The US government topped the list, having made 16,407 such requests last year.