The tech giant has been given the go-ahead to publish more details on government requests

Jun 15, 2013 13:24 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is one of the tech giants that called for greater transparency from the US government following the PRISM scandal, claiming that companies should disclose more details on the federal requests they receive.

The Windows maker has been given the go-ahead to publish additional data on national security orders, revealing that it received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas and orders affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 consumer accounts during the last six months of 2012.

“This afternoon, the FBI and DOJ have given us permission to publish some additional data, and we are publishing it straight away. However, we continue to believe that what we are permitted to publish continues to fall short of what is needed to help the community understand and debate these issues,” Microsoft explained in a statement.

“We are permitted to publish data on national security orders received (including, if any, FISA Orders and FISA Directives), but only if aggregated with law enforcement requests from all other U.S. local, state and federal law enforcement agencies; only for the six-month period of July 1, 2012 thru December 31, 2012; only if the totals are presented in bands of 1,000; and all Microsoft consumer services had to be reported together,” it added.

Microsoft is one of the companies believed to send early warnings to US intelligence agencies on bugs found in its software that would aid their cyber-espionage attempts.

Even though the software giant has denied all reports and said that it only tips off the government in order to help keep computers secure, leaked documents showed that Microsoft and some other large companies, including anti-virus vendors, provided early information on some vulnerabilities found in their software.

At the same time, Microsoft is accused of using Skype to spy on its users and monitor calls, with some tests revealing that an IP based in Redmond checks every HTTPS link sent during a text conversation.