14 DAY TRIAL // Several weeks ago, Google and Microsoft asked the US for approval to start disclosing the aggregate number of user data requests they got as well as the number of users they affected.
Both companies already release some figures, purposefully vague because of the obligatory secrecy.
The government has repeatedly delayed the deadline for a response. The two companies agreed to the delay hoping for a positive response.
But now that the government was finally forced to provide an answer to the requests, unsurprisingly, the answer was "no."
While Director of National Intelligence James Clapper promised that some numbers will start to be published, the figures only paint a very rough picture.
So it's unsurprising that both Microsoft and Google have decided to sue the government over the right of disclosure.
“While the government’s decision to publish aggregate information about certain national security requests is a step in the right direction, we believe there is still too much secrecy around these requests and that more openness is needed," Google said in a statement.
"That’s why we, along with many others, have called on the U.S. government to allow us to publish specific numbers about both FISA and NSL requests," it added.
So far, only Microsoft has talked publicly about suing, but it heavily implied that it was working together with Google on the matter.
Of course, if it took a couple of months for the government to reply to a simple request, you can imagine that a lawsuit is going to take significantly longer than that.
And given how little the US government wants to disclose anyway, it will do everything in its power to delay and fight back against the requests, not because they are dangerous in any way, but because, at this point, it believes that any step back is a sign of weakness.