[OPLINLIST] 30,000 Patriot Act information requests annually?

[Epling, Jimmie (KDLA)]

In the article "Books for Lending, Data for Taking" (New York Times. Nov.
20, 2005), the following statement is made:

 

"The request is one of an estimated 30,000 made to businesses and
institutions each year by federal agents under the Patriot Act."

 

This works out to just over 82 requests per day.  Can someone give me the
name of the agency or organization that is the source for this estimate?  I
am curious how this estimate was determined.

 

Jimmie  

 

Books for Lending, Data for Taking (At the library at North Carolina State
University, students and faculty will soon be able to sign up for an
Internet-based service that will alert them when favorite journals are
published, with links to the articles. They will also be able to create home
pages with links to databases, books, journals, Web sites and other
resources. The library is one of several around the country that are
borrowing techniques from Amazon, Netflix and other Internet companies that
keep information about their customers' purchases and preferences so they
can better cater to their needs or tastes. The hope is that these on-line
programs, whose feasibility is still being tested at this point, will help
libraries appeal to a generation that often prizes convenience over privacy.
Yet for the libraries, privacy remains an important issue. The data such
personalized programs store - information about what journals someone is
reading, for example - could be sought by government agencies under laws
like the USA Patriot Act.)  

New York Times. Nov. 20, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/weekinreview/20cowan.html
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/weekinreview/20cowan.html> 

 

Jimmie Epling, Regional Librarian

FIVCO/Big Sandy Regional Office

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives

P.O. Box 370, 122 South Main Cross St. 

Louisa, KY 41230-0370

V: 606.638.4797  F:606.638.0586

 <mailto:jimmie.epling at ky.gov> jimmie.epling at ky.gov

 

 

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