Journal Journal: EPIC: "Justice Dept Helping Private Companies Evade Law"
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center says, "Alarm bells should be going off," after a FOIA request that returned more than 1,000 pages of internal government documents. "Those documents show the National Security Agency and the Defense Department were deeply involved in pressing for the secret legal authorization, with NSA director Keith Alexander... The Justice Department agreed to grant legal immunity to the participating network providers in the form of what participants in the confidential discussions refer to as '2511 letters', a reference to the Wiretap Act codified at 18 USC 2511 in the federal statute books. An industry representative told CNET the 2511 letters provided legal immunity to the providers by agreeing not to prosecute for criminal violations of the Wiretap Act. It's not clear how many 2511 letters were issued by the Justice Department." EPIC staff attorney Amie Stepanovich says the banner the government proposed is so broad and vague that it would allow ISPs not only to monitor the content of all communication, including private correspondence, but also potentially hand over the monitoring activity itself to the government. She also notes that the banner notice would be one-sided since it would be given only to the employees of participating companies.
