Your office, however, is well positioned to clarify this matter of public interest. Accordingly, we urge your office to consider the following actions to provide clarity on the matter: confirm whether an order, as described in these media reports, was issued; (ii) declassify in whole or in part such order, if it exists; and make a sufficiently detailed public and contextual comment to clarify the alleged facts and circumstances.
We appreciate the need for confidentiality in certain aspects of investigations involving public safety or national security; however, transparency is critical to ensure accountability and in this context must include disclosing how and under what set of circumstances the US government uses specific legal authorities, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to obtain private information about individuals' online activities or communications. Citizens in a democracy require such information to understand and debate the appropriateness of such authorities and how the government employs them.