Facebook has updated its bi-annual report on government data requests. The update reflects a now-familiar increase in data demands, but also the frequency with which Facebook is the subject of Patriot Act demands.
Google, Microsoft and others won a concession from the US Government on Monday in a bitter fight over the tech companies’ right to disclose how many requests they receive under a controversial NSA program.
Verizon gave accounts of the subpoenas, security orders and warrants it received and the wiretaps it executed for law enforcement. But it said nothing on FISA, which it’s barred from reporting on.
Tech companies, stung by criticism that they are part of a surveillance state, have responded by publishing “transparency reports.” Apple finally did the same, though the effort feels half-hearted.
The secret court that oversees America’s spy agencies explained (a bit) about why it believes the mass collection of phone records is legal under the Patriot Act and the Constitution.
Strange bedfellows: Microsoft says it and Google will sue the government to speed up release of information related to the NSA’s PRISM program.
America’s intelligence czar says his office will for the first time publish a transparency report, in part similar to the ones issued by tech companies, that will show how often the spy services ask for data.
Facebook is sharing data for the first time about how often the government asks for information about its users. In doing so, it is joining an industry-wide fight by tech companies to shine more light on surveillance and data requests.
Five years ago, Yahoo lost a challenge to the federal government’s demands to impose surveillance technology. In September, we will find out what happened.
In a new court filing, the Obama Administration says the secret FISA court has no obligation to publish its decisions — not even those that explain why new forms of spying are constitutional.
