Microsoft And Google To Sue The NSA

Google and Microsoft are going through with their lawsuit against the NSA. They are suing for the request that it makes to be made public. After they tried to reach an agreement with the NSA they ended up failing in the end, and now they are going to continue the lawsuit. This is the first time that we have seen these tech giants work together to try and solve a problem


Microsoft's Vice President Stated
"For example, we believe it is vital to publish information that clearly shows the number of national security demands for user content, such as the text of an email. These figures should be published in a form that is distinct from the number of demands that capture only metadata such as the subscriber information associated with a particular email address. We believe it's possible to publish these figures in a manner that avoids putting security at risk. And unless this type of information is made public, any discussion of government practices and service provider obligations will remain incomplete."

They are taking a very strong stand against the government because they want all of their requests to be known by the general republic. While both of the companies comply with the requests on occasion they have the power to say no, and they have the ability to release some of the requests.

From The LA Times

"James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said the government would begin releasing its own reports on NSA surveillance activity.

"But the Center for Democracy & Technology said the reports would fall short of the level of detail needed to provide 'meaningful transparency.'

'The new data that the government plans to publish is not nearly enough to justify the government's continued attempts to gag companies like Google and Microsoft and prevent them from engaging in meaningful transparency reporting of their own,' said Kevin Bankston, the CDT's director of free expression. 'This level of transparency is too little, too late, and is no replacement for hearing directly from Internet companies about how they and their users have been impacted by the NSA's programs.'"

Are Microsoft and Google right to confront the government? Do You want them to?