Friday 22 July 2016

Yahoo becomes the first company to disclose secretive national security letters


Yahoo has become the first company to disclose details of three national security letters (NSLs) to the public. The company is able to make this announcement as a result of recent changes to the USA Freedom Act.
An NSL is a type of subpoena used by the United States federal government to request information pertinent to matters of national security. This communication is typically accompanied by a nondisclosure agreement that prohibits the recipient from making the request known to the public.
However, the enactment of the USA Freedom Act introduced a stipulation that forces the FBI to periodically assess whether nondisclosure requirements associated with particular NSLs are still warranted. If there’s no reason to keep the request under wraps, the gag order is lifted and the recipient can make the information known if they see fit