14 DAY TRIAL // No one believed it would be easy, so it's no surprise that the US government is fighting against transparency into its expansive spy program every step of the way. Several tech companies, including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, have filed a lawsuit demanding the right to disclose the number of secret request they receive from government agencies for data on their users.
The companies only want to be able to report an exact number, but not the actual details of the requests. But the government believes that even the number would provide valuable information to terrorists who will stop using Gmail to plan attacks.
Obviously, the proposition is ridiculous, and no self-respecting terrorist, at least not one capable of doing actual harm, would be using standard web tools provided by American companies.
In any case, it's going to be a long battle and it will be a while before any resolution, in favor of transparency or against it, is reached. Understandably, the companies involved are not happy with the resistance they're meeting.
“We're disappointed that the Department of Justice opposed our petition for greater transparency around FISA requests for user information. We also believe more openness in the process is necessary since no one can fully see what the government has presented to the court," Google said in a statement.
Google has said pretty much the same thing on several occasions before. But Yahoo has gone into more detail on the issue.
"We are disappointed with the Justice Department’s decision to bar us and other Internet companies from publicly disclosing the specific number of user data requests that we receive from the U.S. Government under national security statutes. Yahoo and many other technology firms have made the commitment to share the number and type of government requests we receive for our users’ data through regular reports," Yahoo said.
"The U.S. Government’s decision to block our ability to share with our users more granular information related to national security requests ultimately breeds mistrust and suspicion—both of the United States and of companies that must comply with government legal directives," it added.