Several companies have been pushing for greater transparency in requests made by the US government under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Act has caused companies with access to user profiles to have to turn customer information over to the NSA. This includes access to email and other personal information that is normally encrypted and cannot be accessed with proper authorisation.
While some numbers have been revealed, the companies were still unable to provide a more detailed analysis of which sections of FISA the information was released under. For instance, Google requested permission to break down the information into “FISA orders based on probable cause,” “Section 702 of FISA,” “FISA Business Records,” and “FISA Pen Register/Trap and Trace”; something that did not happen. All information released is also set to a six month delay, which means the recent numbers are only up until the middle of 2013. These numbers reveal the extent of which the US government has been spying on foreign nationals; however, there are no details on the nationality or geographic breakdown of the requests.
Microsoft provided content on somewhere between 15,000-15,999 accounts.
Google provided content on somewhere between 9,000-9,999 accounts.
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Facebook provided content on somewhere between 5,000-5,999 accounts.
Yahoo provided content on somewhere between 30,000-30,999 accounts.
LinkedIn provided content on somewhere between 0-249 accounts.
[source: Ars Technica]
