The legal department at Google fired off a letter to the federal government Tuesday asking for permission to make public data about national security requests.
The letter comes after articles in the Guardian and the Washington Post reported on a National Security Agency program code-named PRISM saying it gave the government access to servers at Internet companies, including Google. Several other Silicon Valley companies were also listed including Yahoo, Facebook, and Apple.
Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Apple all denied playing a role in PRISM.
The letter (posted below) was written to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller. Mountain View-based Google is trying to defute reports that it has created a way for the NSA to have access through PRISM.
"Google's numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made,'' David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, wrote. "Google has nothing to hide.''
Google insists it hasn't been handing over user data on a broad scale, something the company believes it can prove if it receives clearance to disclose the number of requests that have been submitted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Right now, Google is barred from talking about it publicly.
The letter turns the burden of facts back on the government to be more clear about the companies’ role.
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Here's the letter:
Dear Attorney General Holder and Director Mueller
Google has worked tremendously hard over the past fifteen years to earn our users' trust. For example, we offer encryption across our services; we have hired some of the best security engineers in the world; and we have consistently pushed back on overly broad government requests for our users' data.
We have always made clear that we comply with valid legal requests. And last week, the Director of National Intelligence acknowledged that service providers have received Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests.
Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the U.S. government unfettered access to our users' data are simply untrue. However, government nondisclosure obligations regarding the number of FISA national security requests that Google receives, as well as the number of accounts covered by those requests, fuel that speculation.
We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/userdatarequests/US/ aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures-in terms of both the number we receive and their scope. Google's numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide.
Google appreciates that you authorized the recent disclosure http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/transparency-report-shedding-more-light.html of general numbers for national security letters. There have been no adverse consequences arising from their publication, and in fact more companies are receiving your approval to do so as a result of Google's initiative. Transparency here will likewise serve the public interest without harming national security.
We will be making this letter public and await your response.
David Drummond - Chief Legal Officer
