SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

December 1, 2016 by Gary Price

National Security Letter (NSL) Sent to Internet Archive From FBI Includes Error

December 1, 2016 by Gary Price

Kudos and well done (as is regularly the case) to Brewster Kahle, the IA team, and the EFF.
From the Internet Archive:

The Internet Archive, with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is making public the second National Security Letter (NSL) issued to the Archive in our history (we received our first NSL in 2007 and successfully contested it with help from EFF and the ACLU). [Our emphasis] In response to our challenging this new NSL, the FBI has agreed to correct its standard NSL template and send clarifications about the law to potentially thousands of communications providers who have received NSLs in the last year and a half.
[Clip]
The NSL we received includes incorrect and outdated information regarding the options available to a recipient of an NSL to challenge its gag. Specifically, the NSL states that such a challenge can only be issued once a year. But in 2015, Congress did away with that annual limitation and made it easier to challenge gag orders. The FBI has confirmed that the error was part of a standard NSL template and other providers received NSLs with the same significant error. We don’t know how many, but it is possibly in the thousands (according to the FBI, they sent out around 13,000 NSLs last year). How many recipients might have delayed or even been deterred from issuing challenges due to this error? Thankfully, the FBI says that they will now be issuing corrections regarding the law. You can see their letter to us here.

Read the Complete Blog Post from the IA
More From the Electronic Frontier Foundation

“The free flow of information is at the heart of the Internet Archive’s work, but by using national security letters in conjunction with unconstitutional gag orders, the FBI is trying to keep us all in the dark,” said Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive. “Here, it’s even worse: that secrecy helped conceal that the FBI was giving all NSL recipients bad information about their rights. So we especially wanted to make this NSL public to give libraries and other institutions more information and help them protect their users from any improper FBI requests.”
The Archive received this NSL in August, more than a year after Congress changed the law to allow more gag order challenges. In its letter removing the gag order, the FBI acknowledged that it issued other NSLs that included the error, and stated that it will inform all recipients about the mistake. Given that the FBI has said that it issued about 13,000 NSLs last year, thousands of communications providers likely received the false information, and potentially delayed petitioning the court for the right to go public.
“The opaque NSL process—including the lack of oversight by a court—makes it very vulnerable to errors of law.  Add to that the routine use of gags and enforced secrecy, and those errors become difficult to find and correct,” said EFF Staff Attorney Andrew Crocker. “We are grateful to the Internet Archive for standing up to the FBI and shining some light on this error. We hope that others who receive the correction will also step forward to have their gags lifted and shine more light on these unconstitutional data collection tools.”

Read the Complete Blog EFF Announcement
Media Coverage: “Internet Archive Successfully Fends Off Secret FBI Order” via The Intercept

Kahle told The Intercept that the incident should encourage others to challenge NSLs and gag orders in the interest of transparency.
“We would like to see more of these come to light so we understand more of the workings of the government,” he said. “All we get [now] is a tiny peek. We’re appreciative of at least having this much light on the process, but what we’d like to see is a lot more.”

Direct to Full Text of NSL Sent to Internet Archive
Direct to Government Withdrawl of Gag Order re: NSL

Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users

SHARE:

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

Wisconsin: Bills Would Require Libraries to Notify Parents What Kids Check Out. Librarians Say That's Unnecessary; Edition Guide...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stable Diffusion XL Turbo Generates AI Images In Real-Time (via The Decoder) ChatGPT ChatGPT Can Reveal Personal Information From Real People, Google Researchers Show (via VICE) Coalition ...

Two New Reports With Data on Over 70 Publishing Markets Around the World Released Today by World Intellectual...

From an IPA Post: At the Guadalajara International Book Fair, two new reports have been published which provide data on over 70 publishing markets around the world: the Global Publishing ...

Just Released: An Updated Joint Statement on Research Data From STM, DataCite, and Crossref

From the Joint Statement: In 2012, DataCite and STM drafted an initial joint statement on the linkability and citability of research data. With nearly 10 million data citations tracked, thousands of repositories ...

DEAL Consortium and Wiley Sign New 5-Year Open Access Agreement; ResearchGate and American Association for the Advancement of...

American Library Association ALA Announces the 2024 Class of Emerging Leaders British Library British Library Hack: Customer Data Offered For Sale on Dark Web (via BBC) Canada Montreal Libraries Will ...

Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh City Clerk’s Office Launches City Archives Digital Collections Website

From the City of Pittsburgh: The Records Management Division of the Office of the City Clerk and City Council is pleased to announce the launch of a City Archives Digital ...

IFLA's AI SIG Releases: "Developing a Library Strategic Response to Artificial Intelligence" Working Document

From the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) AI Special Interest Group: The purpose of this working document is to set out considerations relevant for libraries developing a ...

scite Joins Research Solutions

From a scite Blog Post: We’re excited to enter a new phase of our journey at scite by coming together with Research Solutions. The motivation behind this decision was our desire ...

Authentic is the Merriam-Webster 2023 Word of the Year; Mendeley Shares "The Most Popular Citation Styles"; & More...

Association of Research Libraries ARL Annual Salary Survey 2022 Reports Data on Professional Positions in Member Libraries Citations Mendeley Shares “The Most Popular Citation Styles” DORA: Declaration on Research Assessment ...

Science: NOAA Unveils New Data Visualization Tool For Exploring Coral Reef Data

From a NOAA Release: NOAA’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) launched a new data visualization tool, which will provide free and easy-to-access information on the status of U.S. coral reefs. ...

Not Real News: An Associated Press Roundup of Untrue Stories Shared Widely on Social Media This Week

From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...

Digital Collections: "All Surviving Drafts, Including Three Rediscovered Pages, of Origin of Species Revealed"

From the National University of Singapore: On the 164th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s magnum opus, all known surviving pages of the rough draft of Origin of species have been published online. Three recently ...

AI/GPT Roundup (5 Items): Large Language Models Pose Risk to Science With False Answers, Says Oxford Study; Can...

Academics Can We Identify Prominent Scholars Using ChatGPT? (via Scientometrics) Bias ChatGPT Replicates Gender Bias in Recommendation Letters (via Scientific American) Datasets ChatGPT Generates Fake Data Set To Support Scientific ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.