US tech firms push for govt transparency on security

Three of the largest US internet companies called on the US government to provide greater transparency on national security requests on Tuesday, as they sought to distance themselves from reports that portrayed the companies as willing partners in supplying mass user data to security agencies.

Google Inc was the first to go public, releasing an open letter asking the US Department of Justice for permission to disclose the number and scope of data requests each receives from security agencies, including confidential requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Microsoft Corp and Facebook Inc soon followed with similarly worded statements in support of Google.

The three companies, and several others, have come under scrutiny following disclosures last week in The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers of their role in a National Security Agency data collection programme named PRISM.

Google's letter - which represented the first instance of the Mountain View, California-based company acknowledging that it has received FISA requests - argued that releasing the total number of national security requests would show the company does not give the government "unfettered access" to its users' data.

"Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the US government unfettered access to our users' data are simply untrue," Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller that was published on Google's public policy blog Tuesday.

"Google's numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made," the letter said.

Google's letter came three days after Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed PRISM's existence and described it as an internal computer system that helped the government collect data obtained from internet companies through FISA requests.