Five technology companies dropped motions jointly filed...
Five technology companies dropped motions jointly filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court asking permission to release more data about FISC orders, said documents filed Monday with the FISC (http://1.usa.gov/M9TQub). The companies -- Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft and Yahoo --…
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received permission from the Justice Department Monday to release some information about how many national security orders they receive, and the number of customer accounts targeted with those orders (CD Jan 28 p10). The five companies said in a joint statement that they believe “the public has a right to know about the volume and type of national security requests we receive. We're pleased the Department of Justice has agreed that we and other providers can disclose this information.” The companies said they'll “continue to encourage Congress to take additional steps to address all of the reforms we believe are needed.” Privacy advocates welcomed the decision, in news releases after the administration’s announcement, but said the government could go further. “This is a victory for transparency and a critical step toward reining in excessive government surveillance,” said Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project (http://bit.ly/MmGnQB). “Companies must be allowed to report basic information about what they're giving the government so that Americans can decide for themselves whether the NSA’s spying has gone too far.” The ACLU and four other consumer advocates -- the Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, First Amendment Coalition and TechFreedom -- filed an amicus brief to the FISC in support of the tech companies’ motions. TechFreedom President Berin Szoka wants the government to go further, he said (http://bit.ly/1k2fgWe). He said the concessions “go just far enough” so President Barack Obama can point to examples of specific surveillance reform in Tuesday’s State of the Union address “without providing Americans the full transparency we need to have a rational debate about balancing national security with privacy.” Szoka pointed to the six-month delay for reporting data, the two-year delay for reporting FISC data and the requirements that the reporting be done in ranges of 1,000: “The transparency allowed by the agreement will paint only a picture of surveillance in the broadest of brush strokes.” Abdo agreed that “even more is needed” on transparency. “Congress should require the government to publish basic information about the full extent of its surveillance,” he said, “including the significant amount of spying that happens without the tech companies’ involvement."