Frightening.
"So much secrecy surrounds NSLs -- by default -- that Ken Carter of Cloudflare wasn't even able to correct a Senate staffer who told him things that were completely untrue.
In early 2014, I met with a key Capitol Hill staffer who worked on issues related to counter-terrorism, homeland security, and the judiciary. I had a conversation where I explained how Cloudflare values transparency, due process of law, and expressed concerns that NSLs are unconstitutional tools of convenience rather than necessity. The staffer dismissed my concerns and expressed that Cloudflare’s position on NSLs was a product of needless worrying, speculation, and misinformation. The staffer noted it would be impossible for an NSL to issue against Cloudflare, since the services our company provides expressly did not fall within the jurisdiction of the NSL statute. The staffer went so far as to open a copy of the U.S. Code and read from the statutory language to make her point.
That's what a gag order does: allows misinformation to go uncorrected. The staffer's interpretation of US Code may have been more to the letter of the law, but Cloudflare's Carter knew -- from personal experience -- that the FBI's interpretation was different.
Because of the gag order, I had to sit in silence, implicitly confirming the point in the mind of the staffer. At the time, I knew for a certainty that the FBI’s interpretation of the statute diverged from hers (and presumably that of her boss).
Not only does the default secrecy allow the FBI to continue to pursue questionable requests with NSLs, but it also allows it to deploy them in apparent violation of US law, right under the nose of its Congressional oversight."
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170111/10240636463/cloudflare-finally-able-to-reveal-fbi-gag-order-that-congress-told-cloudflare-couldnt-possibly-exist.shtml
"So much secrecy surrounds NSLs -- by default -- that Ken Carter of Cloudflare wasn't even able to correct a Senate staffer who told him things that were completely untrue.
In early 2014, I met with a key Capitol Hill staffer who worked on issues related to counter-terrorism, homeland security, and the judiciary. I had a conversation where I explained how Cloudflare values transparency, due process of law, and expressed concerns that NSLs are unconstitutional tools of convenience rather than necessity. The staffer dismissed my concerns and expressed that Cloudflare’s position on NSLs was a product of needless worrying, speculation, and misinformation. The staffer noted it would be impossible for an NSL to issue against Cloudflare, since the services our company provides expressly did not fall within the jurisdiction of the NSL statute. The staffer went so far as to open a copy of the U.S. Code and read from the statutory language to make her point.
That's what a gag order does: allows misinformation to go uncorrected. The staffer's interpretation of US Code may have been more to the letter of the law, but Cloudflare's Carter knew -- from personal experience -- that the FBI's interpretation was different.
Because of the gag order, I had to sit in silence, implicitly confirming the point in the mind of the staffer. At the time, I knew for a certainty that the FBI’s interpretation of the statute diverged from hers (and presumably that of her boss).
Not only does the default secrecy allow the FBI to continue to pursue questionable requests with NSLs, but it also allows it to deploy them in apparent violation of US law, right under the nose of its Congressional oversight."
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170111/10240636463/cloudflare-finally-able-to-reveal-fbi-gag-order-that-congress-told-cloudflare-couldnt-possibly-exist.shtml