Case 1:13-cv-01362-RBW Document 1
Filed 09/09/13
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
________________________________________________
ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER
1718 Connecticut Ave., NW | Suite 200
Washington, DC 20009
Plaintiff,
v.
Broadcasting Board of Governors
330 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20237
Defendant
epic-v-bbg.pdf- (55.96 KiB) Downloaded 628 times
FACTS
6. Encryption is the core technology for privacy and security.
7. “Tor” is one of several encryption techniques deployed by Internet users to safeguard privacy and security.
8. According to Wikipedia, “Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide volunteer network consisting of more than three thousand relays to conceal a user's location or usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis.”
9. Tor is currently maintained by the Tor Project, Inc., a 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization.
10. The BBG met with the Tor Project in January 2010 to discuss “various topics.”
11. In June 2012, the Tor Project signed a contract with BBG.
12. On July 25, 2012, SC Magazine reported that the BBG had provided the Tor Project with funding to install 125 “exit nodes” into the network software.
13. The Tor Project reported on August 4, 2013 that a “large number of hidden service addresses have disappeared from the Tor Network.”
14. The New York Times, The Guardian, and Pro Publica reported on September 5, 2013 that the National Security Agency is able to “undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents.”
15. A security researcher subsequently determined that Tor communications are vulnerable to attack by the National Security Agency.
16. As of 2012, the BBG had directed over $1 million dollars to Tor. The Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation have also directed federal funds to Tor. In total, the U.S. Government provided 60% of Tor’s development costs in 2012.
17. According to the “Minimization Procedures Used by the National Security Agency in Connection with Acquisitions of Foreign Intelligence,”6 a person whose physical location is unknown, which will include many users of the Tor service, "will not be treated as a United States person, unless such person can be positively identified as such, or the nature or circumstances of the person's communications give rise to a reasonable belief that such person is a United States person.”
18. Also, according to the “Minimization Procedures Used by the National Security Agency in Connection with Acquisitions of Foreign Intelligence,” in the event that an intercepted communication is later deemed to be from a US person, the requirement to promptly destroy the material may be suspended in a variety of circumstances, including if the “communications that are enciphered or reasonably believed to contain secret meaning, and sufficient duration may consist of any period of time during which encrypted material is subject to, or of use in, cryptanalysis.”
