From Electronic Frontier Foundation
We reviewed what EFF’s Freedom of Information Act requests revealed in the past year. Today, we’ll take a look at the FOIA lawsuits we filed last year and the information we hope the suits will provide.
On the 10th anniversary of the Patriot Act, EFF sued the Justice Department for its refusal to release information concerning the controversial provision of the PATRIOT Act known as Section 215. In early 2011, multiple Senators warned that the FBI believed Section 215 allowed them “unfettered” access to innocent Americans’ private data, like “a cellphone company’s phone records” in bulk form. "When the American people find out about how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act,” said Wyden on the Senate floor in May, “they are going to be stunned and they are going to be angry.” Unfortunately, the Senators could not give further details since the Justice Department interpretation was classified.