14 DAY TRIAL // Not long after Google asked the US government to be allowed to disclose the number of secret FISA requests for user data it receives, Microsoft and Facebook followed suit. Neither company went as far as Google in their requests, but the essence is the same.
"Permitting greater transparency on the aggregate volume and scope of national security requests, including FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) orders, would help the community understand and debate these important issues," Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft didn't actually say it receives FISA requests, but it is heavily implied. Microsoft, like Google, publishes a transparency report with data on the requests from law enforcement agencies it gets.
Facebook also asked for greater transparency, though it didn't even mention FISA requests by name.
"In the past, we have questioned the value of releasing a transparency report that, because of exactly these types of government restrictions on disclosure, is necessarily incomplete and therefore potentially misleading to users," Facebook General Counsel Ted Ullyot writes.
"We would welcome the opportunity to provide a transparency report that allows us to share with those who use Facebook around the world a complete picture of the government requests we receive, and how we respond," he says.
"We urge the United States government to help make that possible by allowing companies to include information about the size and scope of national security requests we receive, and look forward to publishing a report that includes that information," he asks.
Following the disclosures of the PRISM surveillance program and the wide requests for data made to Verizon, the US government is defending its moves by saying that it's all legal. And it is legal, under the Patriot Act.
But the average American, and even most Congress members, are still in the dark as regards just how much the US intelligence agencies are abusing the laws they helped put in place.