Google has filed a legal challenge to the U.S. government, demanding the right to reveal more information on the data requests it receives in the latest twist in the PRISM scandal.
Since news of PRISM broke earlier this month, tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter have said they would like to reveal more about the requests they receive from the government, and what they provide, in order to prove to wary customers that they remain transparent businesses.
Google has now taken this further by filing a case against the U.S. government, and specifically the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court asking for this right.
“Google’s reputation and business has been harmed by the false or misleading reports in the media, and Google’s users are concerned by the allegations,” it said in the filing. “Google must respond to such claims with more than generalities. Moreover, these are matters of significant weight and importance, and transparency is critical to advancing public debate in a thoughtful and democratic manner.”
The search giant cited the first amendment on the U.S. Constitution as the basis for its argument.
“In particular, Google seeks a declaratory judgment that Google has a right under the First Amendment to publish, and that no applicable law or regulation prohibits Google from publishing, two aggregate unclassified numbers: (1) the total number of FISA requests it receives, if any; and (2) the total number of users or accounts encompassed within such requests.”
Google gave some more insight into its rationale for the case in a post on its Google+ page, explaining that it believes a divide is needed between the type of data it can reveal: (more…)
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