The Department of Justice, United States in a ruling on Monday announced leading tech companies including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn will now be allowed to disclose more information on data requests about user accounts made by intelligence agencies.
Pleased with the government’s move, the tech companies have dropped their petitions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court over the issue.
A joint statement from Eric Holder, Attorney General and James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, read “Through these new reporting methods, communications providers will be permitted to disclose more information than ever before to their customers.”
“In the weeks ahead, additional steps must be taken in order to fully implement the reforms directed by the president.”
The companies will now be allowed to reveal detailed information about the number of national security orders and requests, the number of customer accounts targeted by those orders and the underlying legal authorities, said DOJ official on Monday.
“We filed our lawsuits because we believe that the public has a right to know about the volume and type of national security requests we receive,” the tech companies said in a joint statement.
“We’re pleased the Department of Justice has agreed that we and other providers can disclose this information”.
The five also said that “While this is a very positive step, we’ll continue to encourage Congress to take additional steps to address all of the reforms we believe are needed.”
