I'm not clear on why your made-up number is better than their made-up number, but I agree that even a smaller number of that third category is too many.
Specifically, I'm hesitant to assume that the proportions of the EFF's sample are representative or that they 'scale up' to the number reported by the Inspector General and beyond. The main reason being while the EFF's sample is specific to violations recognized and reported as such, the Inspector General's report is specific to NSLs and not specific to things initially recognized as violations. The later report cites such comparatively minor violations as typos which are likely to be under-represented in the IOB documents, where more serious (and obvious) violations likely over-represented.
That is to say: there may be several thousand additional violations, but the proportion of them which are of the (arguably) more benign classes of clerical mistakes and "overproduction" may be much higher than in the EFF's sample. I think that 20% is very unlikely to be reflective of the (unknown) whole and I think the findings in the Inspector General's report[1] support that.
Specifically, I'm hesitant to assume that the proportions of the EFF's sample are representative or that they 'scale up' to the number reported by the Inspector General and beyond. The main reason being while the EFF's sample is specific to violations recognized and reported as such, the Inspector General's report is specific to NSLs and not specific to things initially recognized as violations. The later report cites such comparatively minor violations as typos which are likely to be under-represented in the IOB documents, where more serious (and obvious) violations likely over-represented.
That is to say: there may be several thousand additional violations, but the proportion of them which are of the (arguably) more benign classes of clerical mistakes and "overproduction" may be much higher than in the EFF's sample. I think that 20% is very unlikely to be reflective of the (unknown) whole and I think the findings in the Inspector General's report[1] support that.
[1]: http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s0803b/final.pdf