Google Asks Government To Let Them Reveal How Many National Security Data Requests They Get

[ProSense]

Google Asks Government To Let Them Reveal How Many National Security Data Requests They Get

By Andrea Peterson

In an open letter to Attorney General Holder and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Mueller, Google asks the agencies to let them publish aggregate numbers about secret requests for digital surveillance. The letter cites the confusing reports on the level of access tech companies allow the NSA and the FBI following the PRISM leaks last week, saying that in the absence of being able to tell the public about the number and scale of requests they receive, it’s impossible to combat them:

Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the U.S. government unfettered access to our users’ data are simply untrue. However, government nondisclosure obligations regarding the number of FISA national security requests that Google receives, as well as the number of accounts covered by those requests, fuel that speculation.

We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures—in terms of both the number we receive and their scope. Google’s numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide.

Google has flatly denied that the government has direct access or a “backdoor” into its servers. In a blogpost suggestively titled “What the…?” last week from Google CEO Larry Page and David Drummond, Chief Legal Officer, say the tech giant provides “user data to governments only in accordance with the law” and their legal team “reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process.”

The government allowed Google to start reporting the number of national security letters they received requesting data earlier this year, but they are still barred from releasing information about Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) orders. Without being able to include this information, it’s impossible for their transparency report to fully reflect the breadth of surveillance in Google services.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/11/2137681/google-asks-government-to-let-them-reveal-how-many-national-security-data-requests-they-get/

[FarCenter]

1. Microsoft and Twitter support Google's proposal

Twitter, often talked about as the privacy shining start in Silicon Valley, backed the push for more transparency as well. The social network’s general counsel said the company agreed with Google and indicated that Twitter supported Merkley’s bill, too.

Microsoft was next to jump on board with Google’s proposal.

“Permitting greater transparency on the aggregate volume and scope of national security requests, including FISA orders, would help the community understand and debate these important issues,” a company spokesman said in a statement.

From the Valley’s perspective, the lack of clarity is dangerous. The government’s nondisclosure rules for FISA requests “fuel that speculation” that Google lets the NSA freely pursue its data, Drummond writes.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/google-transparency-edward-snowden-fisa-92585.html

The major internet companies have a lot to lose if this is not clarified to their customers, especially international firms.

[alp227]

2. K&R, good on Google for transparency! n/t