Facebook, Twitter support Google's call for transparency in surveillance requests

June 12, 2013

Facebook and Microsoft have joined Google in asking for greater transparency in surveillance requests, following widespread criticism of the U.S. government's surveillance programs and the role of the Internet companies.Twitter's General Counsel Alex Macgillivray also wrote in a message Tuesday on the service that Twitter supports efforts for more transparency in NSLs (national security letters) used by the government to collect data.The U.S. National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation have access to servers at Google, Facebook and other major Internet services, collecting content for surveillance, the Guardian reported last week. Internet companies denied that they had provided access to the government to their servers.In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller, Google's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond asked that the company should be allowed to publish in its Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including disclosures under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, in terms of both the numbers received and their scope.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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