[h=3]By EVELYN M. RUSLI and SHIRA OVIDE[/h] Silicon Valley companies are seeking to further distance themselves from government surveillance, though they don't agree on the best approach.
Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. each disclosed figures on data requests from U.S. government and law enforcement entities—though in a form that shed little light on how many of the information transfers were associated with intelligence agencies.
Google Inc., however, questioned the value of such disclosures without being permitted by the government to offer more details on classified requests.
Facebook late Friday disclosed that it received 9,000 to 10,000 requests from all government entities in the U.S.—local, state and federal as well as classified national security-related requests—in the second half of 2012. Microsoft said it received 6,000 to 7,000 such requests in the same period from the same entities, including classified requests.
In corporate blog posts, both companies indicated they weren't satisfied with the level of detail the U.S. government allowed them to provide publicly.
"We continue to believe that what we are permitted to publish continues to fall short of what is needed to help the community understand and debate these issues," John Frank, Microsoft deputy general counsel, said in a blog post.
A person familiar with Facebook's thinking said the company still is pushing government officials for permission to disclose the number of classified requests. For more than week, Facebook blitzed officials with more than 100 calls, this person said, including some from Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook's general counsel, Ted Ullyot, said the requests it received in last year's second half sought data on 18,000 to 19,000 individual Facebook accounts, out of its 1.1 billion active monthly users. "We hope this helps put into perspective the numbers involved, and lays to rest some of the hyperbolic and false assertions in some recent press accounts," he said in a statement.
Google called the disclosures by its rivals a step back for users. "Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately," a spokesman said in a statement, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
As with Microsoft, Google had previously disclosed the total number of government and law-enforcement data requests it received last year—excluding secret surveillance orders.
—Evelyn M. Rusli and Shira Ovide contributed to this article. Write to Evelyn M. Rusli at [email protected] and Shira Ovide at [email protected]
Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. each disclosed figures on data requests from U.S. government and law enforcement entities—though in a form that shed little light on how many of the information transfers were associated with intelligence agencies.
Google Inc., however, questioned the value of such disclosures without being permitted by the government to offer more details on classified requests.
Facebook late Friday disclosed that it received 9,000 to 10,000 requests from all government entities in the U.S.—local, state and federal as well as classified national security-related requests—in the second half of 2012. Microsoft said it received 6,000 to 7,000 such requests in the same period from the same entities, including classified requests.
In corporate blog posts, both companies indicated they weren't satisfied with the level of detail the U.S. government allowed them to provide publicly.
"We continue to believe that what we are permitted to publish continues to fall short of what is needed to help the community understand and debate these issues," John Frank, Microsoft deputy general counsel, said in a blog post.
A person familiar with Facebook's thinking said the company still is pushing government officials for permission to disclose the number of classified requests. For more than week, Facebook blitzed officials with more than 100 calls, this person said, including some from Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook's general counsel, Ted Ullyot, said the requests it received in last year's second half sought data on 18,000 to 19,000 individual Facebook accounts, out of its 1.1 billion active monthly users. "We hope this helps put into perspective the numbers involved, and lays to rest some of the hyperbolic and false assertions in some recent press accounts," he said in a statement.
Google called the disclosures by its rivals a step back for users. "Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately," a spokesman said in a statement, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
As with Microsoft, Google had previously disclosed the total number of government and law-enforcement data requests it received last year—excluding secret surveillance orders.
—Evelyn M. Rusli and Shira Ovide contributed to this article. Write to Evelyn M. Rusli at [email protected] and Shira Ovide at [email protected]