Google says FBI spies on its clients

Google Inc. has revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spies on and monitors the private information of its clients.

The Internet giant released a report on Tuesday, highlighting the number of times since 2009 the FBI has used National Security Letters (NSL) to spy on and gather information on Google’s clients.

During the second half of 2012, the FBI requested data from over 14,790 accounts, with more than 10,000 of those users targeted with subpoenas, and 3,000 accounts requested with a search warrant. Nearly 1,250 users had their information inundated by court orders issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

The FBI requested the “name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records” of Google users, the company revealed.

The FBI is not permitted to obtain user email content, search queries, YouTube videos or IP addresses.

Internet advocacy groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation have criticized the FBI’s use of NSLs, saying they are “one of the most frightening and invasive… of all the dangerous government surveillance powers that were expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act” due to their secrecy and lack of judicial review.

Any FBI field office is allowed to issue an NSL, which has been used much more widely since 9/11 and require far less oversight than a search warrant or subpoena.

In July 2012, National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney said that Washington was secretly gathering information “about virtually every US citizen in the country” in a “very dangerous process” that violates the privacy of Americans.

Investigations by the European Union in October 2012 indicated that Google’s privacy policy had failed to provide users with sufficient control over their data.

Google Inc. is an American multinational corporation that provides Internet-related products and services, including internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies.