Microsoft Asks To Be Able To Disclose FISA Requests

We’ve already seen the likes of Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft release some data about government requests. Yet now Microsoft is taking things one step further and it says it wants permission to be able to release information about data requests made under the FISA legislation. Previously Microsoft and other companies had only been able to release information about general government requests in an aggregated figure. Allowing it to release FISA information would be a breakdown of that aggregation though the FISA data would still be aggregated to a certain extent.

Under current rules companies can only reveal FISA requests if lumped together with all other government requests including those for legal and criminal investigations.

“To promote additional transparency concerning the government’s lawful access to Microsoft’s customer data, Microsoft seeks to report aggregate information about FISA orders and FAA directives separately from all other local, state and federal law enforcement demands” Microsoft said in a motion that it submitted to the US Courts.

It is good to see Microsoft pushing on ahead to reveal the extent of FISA surveillance it has been subjected to and what’s more if Microsoft are successful we could see other big companies follow suit using the same ruling.

Image courtesy of Nethope.org