Report from DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty

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The DCIA is going on the record to oppose an expansion of the National Security Letter (NSL) statute.

We object to recently added language in the Senate Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.

We dispute the similarly worded amendment filed by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) to the reform bill for the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

We disagree with any version of these bills that would increase the government's ability to access private data without a court order.  

This proposed expansion of the NSL statute has been characterized by some government officials as merely fixing a "typo" in the law.

In reality, though, it would drastically amplify the ability of federal agencies to gather sensitive information about users' online activities without court oversight.

These provisions would expand a category of data, known as Electronic Communication Transactional Records (ECTRs), that the FBI, for example, could obtain using administrative subpoenas, which do not require probable cause.

These records include a host of online information, such as IP addresses, routing and transmission files, session data, and more.

The new categories of information that could be collected using an NSL- without any oversight from a judge - would paint an incredibly intimate picture of an individual's life.

For example, a person's browsing history, email metadata, physical location, and exact date and time he or she signed in or out of a particular online account.

This information could reveal details about a person's political affiliation, medical condition, religious preference, sexual orientation, and even his or her movements throughout the day.

Our concern is compounded by a history of government abuse.

In the past decade, the FBI has issued over 300,000 NSLs, illegally exploiting them in the bulk collection of tens of thousands of records to obtain data not permitted under the statute, using the information to gain access to cases not relevant to authorized investigations, and storing the collected material indefinitely.

Given the sensitive nature of information that could be swept up under the proposed expansion, and the documented past abuses of the existing NSL statute, we urge the Senate to remove these provisions from the Intelligence Authorization Act and the ECPA reform bill. Share wisely, and take care.