Digital Companies Seek Delicate Balance On Government Data Requests
Yahoo, Google and Microsoft are on a crusade to ensure the public knows they don’t succumb to every demand from the government for consumer data. In the wake of the National Security Administration’s PRISM program scandal, they’ve each formally petitioned for the ability to reveal more information about government data requests.
Yahoo seems furthest ahead in this pursuit. The company has been granted the ability to reveal the opinion of a ruling from its unsuccessful 2008 challenge to the constitutionality of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order to provide data on Yahoo users. It’s the latest wrinkle in the ongoing data-gate saga prompted by exposure of the PRISM program, which has the world’s largest digital advertising and media corporations squirming.
Though much of the process remains obscured, the Federal government is evaluating whether to grant Yahoo a motion to disclose all or parts of the opinion on the constitutionality case ruling. It was only recently that Yahoo was able to disclose the fact that it filed the suit at all. The decision to unveil FISA court opinion information is an unusual one, said a source close to the Yahoo case who asked to remain anonymous.
