ACLU Wants the Feds To Fess Up About Email Snooping

The American Civil Liberties Union
wants the Federal Bureau of Investigation to answer a few questions
about how it scoops up that oh-so-don’t worry-about-it metadata the
feds keeps saying is perfectly legitimate to collect. For instane,
is it true the FBI uses “port readers” to mass-copy whole emails,
including content, and then erases the messages and just
keeps the metadata? This is important not just in bureau
activities, but because we’ve learned that the NSA’s domestic
spying programs
take place under the authority of the FBI.

From the
ACLU:

Yesterday, we filed a Freedom of Information Act request with
the FBI asking for details about a surveillance tool we know too
little about, called a port reader. According to news reports, port
readers copy entire emails and instant messages as they move
through networks, in real time. They then delete the contents of
the messages, leaving only the “metadata” — the sender, recipient,
and time of a message, and maybe even the location from which it
was sent — behind for the government. According to the same
reports, the FBI is taking steps to install port readers on the
networks of major U.S. phone and Internet companies, going so far
as to make threats of contempt of court to providers that don’t
cooperate.

The use of port readers isn’t a new revelation, as news travels
these days. CNet
reported last August about the feds putting the squeeze on
Internet service providers to build the technology into their
systems so agents could drink from the stream at will. But the
formal ACLU
FOIA filing is new, and could tell us just deeply burrowed into
our communications the government has been all this time, and just
how much “trust us” they expect the American public to swallow.

Among the questions the ACLU wants answered are those below:

1. Policies, procedures, practices, and legal memos relating to
   the installation and use of port reader processes, devices,
   hardware, software, or firmware;
2. Technical specifications for the installation and use of port
   reader processes, devices, hardware, software, or firmware
   (including any relevant API, ABI, or network protocol
   specification);
3. What kinds ofintemet traffic (i.e., what protocols) are
   captured by port reader processes, devices, hardware, software, or
   firmware;
4. What categories of metadata port reader processes, devices,
   hardware, software, or firmware are capable of capturing, and which
   categories are in fact collected;
5. Whether and to what extent port readers copy or retain
   communications content, including any content of emails, any
   content of instant messages, and any addresses of web pages
   visited;
6. How many communications have had their content or metadata
   copied or retained using port reader processes, devices, hardware,
   software, or firmware;
7. How many individuals have had their communications metadata or
   content copied or retained using port reader processes, devices,
   hardware, software, or firmware;
8. Whether telecommunications carriers and Internet service
   providers have installed port reader processes, devices, hardware,
   software, or firmware;
9. The case name, docket number, and court of any legal proceeding
   in which any private entity has challenged or resisted the
   installation and use of port reader processes, devices, hardware,
   software, or firmware;
10. Pursuant to which legal authorities the FBI bases its claim
    that it may lawfully request or compel the installation and/or use
    of port reader processes, devices, hardware, software or
    firmware.
11. The name of the tool identified by CNET and Foreign Policy as a
    port reader.

The answers should be fascinating, but don’t hold your breath
while you wait for the FBI to cooperate.