Most people are aware of the debate regarding the possibly illegal, and probably unconstitutional, access to Americans’ phone records, credit reports and internet traffic requested (or demanded, depending on your point of view) by the FBI and Homeland Security. These abuses 0ccurred mostly from 2002-2007 and were supposed to be the result of investigations aimed at potential terrorists and spies. The FBI claims that it enacted broad overhauls in March 2007 to prevent future lapses. (Personally, I think these “overhauls” are to prevent such lapses from again becoming public.)

I recall very clearly when some of the ISPs, telecom companies, and even public libraries refused to cooperate with these “requests” from the government. FBI Director Robert Mueller claims that those lapses were caused, in part, by banks, telecommunication companies, and other private businesses giving the FBI more personal client data than requested.

So I guess that those “national security letters” that the FBI sent had no bearing on the amount of information that companies were forced to provide. I suppose that the content of these letters, and the fact that it was the FBI requesting their “cooperation”, didn’t cause those companies to adopt a “take anything you want!” attitude. I’d love to see exactly what these letters said, but I’m sure they are unavailable to the public, in the interest of national security.