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Big technology companies on Monday released updated reports on the number of government requests for information on their users.
And they're getting a little feisty about it.
Facebook, Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Yahoo! all released reports, the first since the tech companies negotiated a deal with federal authorities allowing them to disclose certain information regarding government requests for user information.
Apple released an updated review last week.
Last summer, the technology companies filed lawsuits against the United States government arguing that they had a right to disclose more detailed information about the types of requests the government makes.
After several months of negotiations, the government recently agreed to allow these tech outlets to publish information regarding Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, requests.
The deal allows the companies to detail in broad terms what the government has asked for, but does not allow them to characterise the information that was requested. Tech companies younger than two years old are not covered by the compromise.
In return, the big tech companies agreed to drop their suits.
Microsoft said that between January and June 2013, the company received less than 1,000 FISA requests related to between 15,000 and 15,999 accounts. As Microsoft noted, these requests do not necessarily mean that more than 15,000 people were part of these data requests because one user may have multiple Microsoft accounts.
The company also said it received less than 1,000 National Security Letter requests covering fewer than 1,000 accounts. National Security Letter, or NSL, are subpoenas issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and often pertain to federal crimes.
Most of the of the tech reports still took a combative tone toward the government, noting that agencies have been trying to deter tech companies from publishing these reports.
Facebook also took a swipe at the media. Colin Stretch, Facebook's general counsel, calling reports from last year that Facebook and others were working closely with the US government "sensationalist and inaccurate media accounts."
Facebook reported that between January and June 2013 the company received between 5,000 and 6,000 FISA requests and less than 1,000 NSL requests.
LinkedIn seems to have received the smallest number of requests from the government.
"As you can see in the updated Transparency Report, we have received between 0 and 249 national security-related requests, impacting between 0 and 249 accounts, for the time period between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013," LinkedIn's lawyer, Erika Rottenberg, wrote on the company's website.
Yahoo! noted that the number of Yahoo! accounts involved in requests from government agencies around the globe added up to "less than one-hundredth of one percent" of the company's worldwide user base.
As Yahoo! wrote, the most recent FISA requests by the government will not be made public for six months because of a mandatory delay imposed by the the United States government. The company said these numbers would be updated by the fall of 2014.
In Apple's report, which was released last week, the company said it had been working directly with the White House, the US Attorney General, congressional leaders, and the Department of Justice to advocate for more transparency with national security orders it receives.
"We believe strongly that our customers have the right to understand how their personal information is being handled," Apple wrote in a statement.
©2014 The New York Times News Service
