Facebook, Google and Yahoo are together putting increased pressure on the government to allow the companies to distinctly identify the number of national security related requests for user data separately from other law enforcement requests.

From the LA Times:

Technology giants Facebook, Google and Yahoo presented a rare united front in filing separate motions asking to publicly disclose more details about secret national intelligence requests they receive under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

They made the motions Monday in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The companies are seeking permission to reveal the number and nature of the national intelligence requests to address growing public concern and regain the trust of users.

Facebook’s general counsel posted on the social networking site today that the government’s initial efforts to work with the companies in releasing information about government requests for user data has not gone far enough.



Facebook’s statement indicated that further dialogue with the US government on this matter is “unlikely to result in more progress.”

Microsoft also recently announced that it would move forward with a lawsuit to win the right to publish the same type of data for its company, after it revealed that negotiations with the government had failed.

Google and Facebook previously published statistics that show the number of government requests for user data, but the companies expressed concern that they were not permitted to disclose the national security related requests separately from the overall numbers.

And Yahoo published its first transparency report Friday on government related data requests, but was also held to the same restrictions.

The inability to report national security related data requests distinctly from the total numbers has continued to leave a cloud hanging over internet companies in the wake of reporting about the NSA’s PRISM program after leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Facebook FISC Motion by Mandy Nagy


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