Seeking to undo the damage to its business and reputation as a result of “false or misleading reports in the media,” Google has asked the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to affirm its right to publish limited statistical data about orders it receives from the court.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court oversees surveillance requests from the nation’s intelligence agencies. The requests, made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), typically come with a gag order. In April, as revealed two weeks ago by The Guardian, the court approved a request by the National Security Agency for ongoing daily access to the phone records of Verizon Business Services.
In reports based on information provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden earlier this month about the extent of U.S. government surveillance operations, The Guardian and The Washington Post said that Google and other technology companies, including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, provided the NSA with direct access to company servers through as system called Prism, to sift through customer data in pursuit of national security.
Google CEO Larry Page and chief legal officer David Drummond promptly rebutted the claim that their company provides U.S. authorities with direct access to customer data. And a week ago, Drummond published an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller seeking permission to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA orders in its Transparency Report.