The three largest American internet companies have requested the U.S. government to allow them greater transparency regarding its national security requests, in an attempt to justify themselves after media reports indicated they were willing partners in providing their users’ data to intelligence agencies.
Google was the first to publicly make such a request, publishing an open letter asking the U.S. Department of Justice for permission to disclose the number and scope of data requests made by intelligence agencies, including classified requests under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Subsequently, Microsoft and Facebook issued similar statements, supporting Google’s request.
The three companies, along with several others, found themselves in the spotlight after The Guardian and Washington Post reported last week on their role in a data collection program known as Prism, conducted by the U.S. National Security Agency.
In Google’s letter, in which the company acknowledged for the first time that it had received FISA requests, it explained that disclosing the total number of national security requests would demonstrate that the company does not provide authorities with unlimited access to its users’ data.
“Media reports that our compliance with these requests gives the U.S. government unlimited access to our users’ data are simply not true,” said Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond in a letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
