Microsoft and Google to sue US government

Microsoft and Google will move ahead with litigation against the US government, in order to gain permission to disclose greater detail about the customer information they are compelled to reveal to US agencies under the US’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The two companies argue they have the right, under the US Constitution, to share more information with the public about the data they pass on to US agencies.

Each company filed suit in June in order to gain permission to disclose greater detail about the information they hand over.

Since then, the two companies have agreed six times to extend the government’s deadline to reply to the lawsuits.

But discussions with the US government on the issue have “ended in failure”, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, wrote in a blog post last week.

“With the failure of our recent negotiations, we will move forward with litigation in the hope that the courts will uphold our right to speak more freely,” Smith wrote.

Smith acknowledged that on the day prior to his blog post, the US government said it would begin publishing the total number of national security requests for customer data on an annual basis. “But the public deserves and the Constitution guarantees more than this first step,” he said.

“We believe it is vital to publish information that clearly shows the number of national security demands for user content, such as the text of an email. These figures should be published in a form that is distinct from the number of demands that capture only metadata such as the subscriber information associated with a particular email address,” Smith wrote.

Opponents of greater disclosure have argued that revealing more information to the public could harm national security.

James Clapper, the US’s director of national intelligence, said last week: “FISA and national security letters are an important part of our effort to keep the nation and its citizens safe, and disclosing more detailed information about how they are used and to whom they are directed can obviously help our enemies avoid detection.”

Smith said: “We believe it’s possible to publish these figures in a manner that avoids putting security at risk. And unless this type of information is made public, any discussion of government practices and service provider obligations will remain incomplete.”

Google issued a statement that echoed Smith’s sentiments: “While the government’s decision to publish aggregate information about certain national security requests is a step in the right direction, we believe there is still too much secrecy around these requests and that more openness is needed. That’s why we, along with many others, have called on the US government to allow us to publish specific numbers about both FISA and NSL requests.”

Image courtesy Alexandre Dulaunoy under CC