The Obama administration will allow Internet companies to talk more specifically about when they're forced to turn over customer data to government agents, the Justice Department said Monday. The new rules resolve legal fights with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook before the nation's secret surveillance court.

But while under the terms of the new arrangement, customers will have a somewhat better idea of how often the government demands information, they still won't know what's being collected, or how much.

The dispute began last year after a former government contractor, Edward J. Snowden, revealed that F.B.I. and National Security Agency surveillance programs rely heavily on data from U.S. email providers, video-chat services and social-networking companies. Sometimes, FBI agents demand data with administrative subpoenas known as national security letter.

Other times, the Justice Department makes the demand under the authority of the surveillance court but without a specific warrant Either way, the justification is typically secret and companies are prohibited from saying much.

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