New spy law allows all companies to disclose if feds seek private customer information

WASHINGTON – Within the sweeping overhaul of the new USA Freedom Act is a provision pushed by Sen. Al Franken that will allow companies to let the public know whenever federal investigators seek private consumer data about their customers.

Franken says the measure is a needed bit of transparency in the wake of revelations about the sheer volume of information federal agencies have been collecting on Americans. No individual names will be disclosed, but companies will be allowed to post a range of information requests made of them by the government in terrorism probes.

"I'm satisfied that this is a big step forward in letting Americans and Minnesotans know what this program is and that it's striking the right balance between privacy and national security," said Franken, who spent two years fighting for the transparency measure. "Americans can see for themselves if what we're doing strikes the right balance."

But some companies in Minnesota are already worried about where to draw the line on what now will be voluntary reporting.

"If something is voluntary, I don't know how the member banks would view that," said Joe Witt, president of the Minnesota Bankers Association. Witt said he planned to "let people know what their options are and leave it up to them to decide what to do."

A handful of big technology companies already do this. Facebook, for example, has posted how many federal inquiries it receives per year since 2013, under an agreement reached by tech giants and the Obama administration a couple of years ago.

The new law requires a time delay in reporting and companies would disclose the range of requests, such as 250 to 500, rather than a precise number. The individual names of those being investigated would remain private.

"I see the goal of the language, but I'm not sure many companies would participate," said Charlie Weaver, executive director of the Minnesota Business Partnership, which represents the state's largest for-profit organizations.

Weaver said he saw little upside for businesses in disclosing whether they had given the federal government information about their customers. "If I was one in 99, you can't disclose individual requests," he said. "It seems to me that even for the customer you are setting up a frustrating situation."

Amie Hoffner, a vice president at TCF Financial Corporation in Wayzata, said her organization is still weighing the new law.

"We have not decided if TCF Bank will voluntarily disclose the number of government requests made for customer information," she said.

American views on how the government conducts surveillance both at home and abroad since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have shifted in the past 14 years. After 911, the Patriot Act was ushered swiftly into law. A largely vague and secretive measure, the law gave the federal government broad powers to collect private phone and e-mail data on Americans.

"There is a bipartisan effort to walk it back a bit," said Brian Atwood, a former diplomat under President Clinton and former dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who supported the USA Freedom Act, said the bill was supported by experts on opposing sides of the issue, including the Association of Librarians and technology companies and would strengthen privacy protections.

Bijan Madhani, a lawyer at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, acknowledged that some start-up and smaller state-based companies may have a learning curve in how to incorporate government disclosure into their practices.

"Ultimately, I think the companies will want to be up front," he said. "They want to help with the misinformation problem … they will want users to be able to trust them. The best way to get rid of bad information is to give more good information."

Jim Spencer • 202-383-6122