$GOOG, $MSFT, and $FB Request Transparency From the Government in a Bid to Distance Themselves

“Three of the largest Internet companies called on the U.S. government to provide greater transparency on national security requests on Tuesday, as they sought to distance themselves from reports that portrayed the companies as willing partners in supplying mass data to security agencies.

In similarly worded statements released within hours on Tuesday, Google,Microsoft and Facebook all asked the U.S. government for permission to make public the number and scope of data requests each receives from security agencies.

Each of the companies, and several others, have come under scrutiny following disclosures in The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers of their role in a National Security Agency data collection program named Prism….”

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