WaPo: Order reissued routinely every 90 days since 2006

[dkf]

@lrozen: WaPo: order reissued routinely every 90 days & and 'not related to any particular investigation' http://t.co/wkedWQ1S7h @emptywheel

An expert in this aspect of the law said Wednesday night that the order appears to be a routine renewal of a similar order first issued by the same court in 2006. The expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said that the order is reissued routinely every 90 days and that it is not related to any particular investigation by the FBI or any other agency.

The expert referred to such orders as “rubber stamps” sought by the telephone companies to protect themselves after the disclosure in 2005 that widespread warrantless wiretaps could leave them liable for damages.

The order falls under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the government to make broad demands on telephone carriers for information about calls. In this case, the order requires Verizon to provide “ongoing, daily” information about “all call detail records .?.?. created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad; or wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

The White House, the Justice Department and the FBI, which apparently sought the order, declined to comment. Spokesmen for Verizon and the court also declined to comment.

[temmer]

1. Hmmm...I think I shouldn't believe this

This expert "said that the order is reissued routinely every 90 days and that it is not related to any particular investigation by the FBI or any other agency."

But this was a special order in response to a FBI request! From the Guardian article:

////
The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

The court order expressly bars Verizon from disclosing to the public either the existence of the FBI's request for its customers' records, or the court order itself.

"We decline comment," said Ed McFadden, a Washington-based Verizon spokesman.

The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compels Verizon to produce to the NSA electronic copies of "all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls".
////

The expert wants us to sell that this is just a routine measure. I begin to understand why he speaks "under the condition of anonymity".

[dkf]

2. Oh the routine of it makes it scarier...

Discussing the use of GPS data collected from mobile phones, an appellate court noted that even location information on its own could reveal a person's secrets: "A person who knows all of another's travels can deduce whether he is a weekly churchgoer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups," it read, "and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts."

The primary purpose of large-scale databases such as the NSA's call records is generally said to be data-mining: rather than examining individuals, algorithms are used to find patterns of unusual activity that may mark terrorism or criminal conspiracies.

However, collection and storage of this information gives government a power it's previously lacked: easy and retroactive surveillance.

If authorities become interested in an individual at a later stage, and obtain their number, officials can look back through the data and gather their movements, social network, and more – possibly for several years (although the secret court order only allows for three months of data collection).

http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2013/jun/06/phone-call-metadata-information-authorities

[malaise]

3. 90days = three months n/t

[Safetykitten]

4. Simple rule. republican does it, get enraged. Democrat, think of creative explainations.