Google provides glimpse at secret US requests for data

February 04, 2014 04:20

Google today for the first time provided a glimpse into the numbers of secret requests for user data made by the US in the name of fighting terrorism.

US officials used the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to ask for information from between 9,000 and 10,000 Google user accounts in the first six months of 2013, and between 12,000 to 13,000 accounts in the six months prior to that, according to a blog post.

Release of such data was subject to a six-month delay under terms of an arrangement with the US Department of Justice to let Internet firms be slightly more open about how much information is sought under authority of FISA court orders.

"Publishing these numbers is a step in the right direction, and speaks to the principles for reform that we announced with other companies last December," Google law enforcement and information security legal director Richard Salgado said in a blog post.

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