I'm a privacy researcher, specifically focusing on government access to data held by Internet companies. Google, your employer, will not confirm, on the record

I'm a privacy researcher, specifically focusing on government access to data held by Internet companies. Google, your employer, will not confirm, on the record, what they will or will not disclose when they get an NSL. The NSL statute does not authorize the disclosure of transactional records. 18 USC 2709(b)(1) states that the government can only get "the name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records" Furthermore, a 2008 opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel at DOJ specifically confirmed that the FBI cannot use NSLs to get email to/from data, even though the government has asked for it in the past. See: http://www.justice.gov/olc/2008/fbi-ecpa-opinion.pdf http://www.justice.gov/olc/2008/fbi-ecpa-opinion.pdf NSLs are gagged, and so Google cannot confirm when it gets NSLs, or for which customers the government is seeking data. However, Google could very easily provide information to the public confirming what it will and will not deliver to the FBI when it receives an NSL. I have asked Google's legal and DC policy team for this info, repeatedly, and hit a brick wall.