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A Step Towards Surveillance Transparency

Laura W. Murphy,
Former Director, Washington Legislative Office,
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June 12, 2013

When Google published its first government transparency report in 2010, critics of the company upon the company, and rightly so. At a time when other internet companies were fearful of "" by publishing surveillance statistics, Google boldly led the way. In recent years, Twitter, Microsoft, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Sonic.Net, SpiderOak and Silent Circle all followed, and received well deserved praise for doing so from public interest advocates.

Yesterday, Facebook that the company will begin publishing transparency reports. This was a surprise to many in the advocacy community, who have for years repeatedly urged the company to do so. We are glad that the company has seen the light and will be publishing this information.

Also yesterday, , and issued public statements urging the US government to permit them to publish statistics related to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests that they receive. Public interest advocates have for some time to publish this data, as the companies' past statements regarding the inclusion of national security related requests in their transparency reports were . We are delighted to see these companies push for greater transparency about the secret surveillance requests they receive from intelligence agencies, especially on the heels of the greatest government surveillance scandal in decades.

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