[Infowarrior] - DOJ to allow tech firsm greater disclosures of gov requests

[Richard Forno]

U.S. to allow companies to disclose more details on government requests for data

By Craig Timberg and Adam Goldman

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-to-allow-companies-to-disclose-more-details-on-government-requests-for-data/2014/01/27/3cc96226-8796-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html

The Justice Department has agreed to relax its long-standing gag order on certain types of sensitive data requests made to companies, allowing them for the first time to publicize — in broad terms — how often they must furnish customer information to the government, U.S. officials announced Monday.

The agreement, struck in response to legal challenges from Google, Microsoft and other technology companies, comes as part of President Obama’s effort to ease the secrecy around government intelligence-gathering in the aftermath of revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

The new policy will allow companies to report on national security letters — a form of administrative subpoena — as well as on requests from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). However, they will be permitted to disclose the volume of requests only in wide numerical ranges.

The number of national security letters, a frequent tool of the FBI, could be listed as between one and 999, for example. Companies will also be able to disclose, in similarly broad ranges, how many customer accounts are targeted. Such information can be reported, under the new rules, once every six months.

The same rules will apply to requests from the FISC. Companies will also have the option of lumping the two categories of data requests together in a single total. If they do so, the numeric range can be in smaller bands, such as between “zero and 249,” according to the Justice Department.

U.S. officials have said that more-precise reporting might tip targets off to investigations.

Although the agreement does not provide full transparency, it addresses some of the concerns raised by several technology companies over the summer during negotiations with Justice Department officials. Those talks at one point collapsed, resulting in a series of filings with the FISC, beginning in June, that formally requested a loosening of the restrictions on the grounds that they violated the First Amendment.

Several technology companies long have publicized certain types of government data requests — typically from regular courts and police — in “transparency reports,” but they were prohibited from offering a public accounting of national security letters and requests from the FISC.

On Monday, Apple disclosed that it had received fewer than 249 national security letters, affecting fewer than 249 accounts, in the first six months of 2013.

“We applaud the Administration for taking this important step toward greater transparency, and we thank the Justice Department for considering Apple’s point of view as it reached this decision,” the company said in a statement.

The new policy was detailed in a letter from Deputy Attorney General James Cole to the five companies that filed legal requests to the FISC seeking more transparency about data requests. U.S. officials also made a filing to that court.

“While this aggregate data was properly classified until today, the office of the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with other departments and agencies, has determined that the public interest in disclosing this information now outweighs the national security concerns that required its classification,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

The companies that waged the legal fight for more disclosure issued a joint statement Monday saying: “We filed our lawsuits because we believe that the public has a right to know about the volume and types of national security requests we receive. We’re pleased the Department of Justice has agreed that we and other providers can disclose this information. While this is a very positive step, we’ll continue to encourage Congress to take additional steps to address all of the reforms we believe are needed.”

Several of the companies also have urged broader changes to surveillance practices, especially those by the NSA. A coalition of companies in December sent a letter to Obama and Congress demanding more-sweeping changes intended to confine data collection to formal channels and to improve transparency over such processes.

“This is a victory for transparency and a critical step toward reining in excessive government surveillance,” said Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. “Companies must be allowed to report basic information about what they’re giving the government so that Americans can decide for themselves whether the NSA’s spying has gone too far.”

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