14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the tech giants have had enough with the government telling them what they can and cannot do when it comes to their customers. To that end, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple are now going to start informing their users when the government requires data about them.
It’s been ten months since Edward Snowden let loose thousands of documents from the National Security Agency. One of the very first stories reported on the topic was about PRISM, a program that had the NSA collecting data from a series of huge tech companies, including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Skype and more.
All these companies have denied working with the government, even though intelligence leaders have been quick to throw some of the blame over them, saying that they knew very well that they were collaborating. Even so, every coin has two sides and so does this entire story.
Companies had been given a gag order, meaning that they weren’t allowed to speak a word about these government requests they were receiving, or even to incorporate any numbers in their transparency reports. Such secrecy demands are, in fact, built in the data requests approved by the FISA court and national security letters.
They weren’t even allowed to say “no.” After all, Yahoo tried to fight the NSA in court and got denied quite fast. Under these circumstances, the tech companies didn’t really have any alternative but to comply.
While they may still be “hostages” of this entire system and they still have to comply with every request from an agency like the NSA, the companies are fighting the only way they know how – they’ll start alerting users when the government demands their data.
The Washington Post is reporting that Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft have updated their policies to routinely notify customers when law enforcement has requested information about them, something that Yahoo did last summer.
This isn’t only a way to keep customers happy, but also a way to perhaps make the authorities back down. It looks like companies have discovered that investigators will think twice before demanding data if they know that the suspects will find out about it.
“It serves to chill the unbridled, cost-free collection of data. And I think that’s a good thing,” said Albert Gidari Jr., a partner at Perkins Coie, the office that represents several technology companies.
As you’d expect, the Justice Department isn’t happy with this and has said that the new policies threaten investigations and put crime victims in peril.
“These risks of endangering life, risking destruction of evidence, or allowing suspects to flee or intimidate witnesses are not merely hypothetical, but unfortunately routine,” said the department’s spokesperson.