Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn reveal govt. snoop-data request details

Tech giants Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn have reportedly published their detailed transparency reports stating the number of snoop-data requests the government made as part of its wider mass surveillance programme.

The tech companies agreed with the Department of Justice to release details about the number of information requests, including national security letters (NSLs) and requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

According to The Verge, the permission to publish details allows the tech companies to reveal NSLs and FISA requests into separate categories in bands of 1,000 and if they want to combine the categories, they can report in bands of 250.

The report said that LinkedIn and Apple chose to publish their reports in a clubbed fashion and revealed that they both had received between 0 and 249 total national security orders over the first half of 2013, requesting information about between 0 and 249 accounts.

Meanwhile, the other companies, which have much larger web presences and receive a higher volume of overall law enforcement requests, opted to split requests into separate categories with wider bands.

The report said that no company listed getting more than 999 orders in six months for any one category.