posted on Nov, 1 2010 @ 05:32 PM
Because of the Patriot Act and the expansions granted in the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2004, the FBI can provide a NSL (National Security
Letter) without a warrant or a subpoena to a US-based provider for information regarding a suspect. The provider then must not only comply but is
gagged from discussing such, either with the media, their own lawyer, and least of all the target of the investigation.
All US-based providers on the Internet comply with this, from your ISP (Internet Service Provider), to Google, to Craigslist, to Hotmail, to Myspace &
Facebook, to even ATS.
Generally these providers will just provide information to the FBI, and you would be none the wiser, but in some cases the NSL comes with a Cease &
Desist Order that will ask that all services to the suspect be stopped without warning or without explanation.
This doesn't mean that your ISP, Google, Craigslist, Microsoft, MySpace, Facebook, or ATS are the lap-dogs of the U.S. government, it just means that
that they are just complying with a law they may not necessarily agree with but are obligated to follow.