Tag: Transparency Reports

A month after the publication of its first Transparency Report mentioning National Security Letters (NSLs), Google filed a motion before the Northern District of California to “set aside”–or in plain language, defer–this controversial form of request. Google’s action follows in the courageous legal footsteps of a handful of service providers–including the ACLU’s defense of the Calyx Institute and EFF’s successful petition on behalf of an unnamed client–raising hopes that Google’s suit may finally expose the worldwide reach of NSLs.

Google released its semi-annual transparency report today, indicating an increase in government requests for content removal worldwide–although more than half came from a handful of countries.

The Dutch hosting provider Leaseweb releases first transparency report, joining growing ranks of internet companies proactively disclosing their human rights impacts. The Leaseweb report provides insight into both the type of requests faced by hosting companies and provides a model for hosting companies seeking to undertake similar disclosure efforts.

The Access team has reviewed Microsoft’s transparency report and analyzed what it does–and does not–tell us about law enforcement requests for Skype data, as well as how it measures up to the demands in the January open letter from civil society.

Last week Microsoft released its first-ever transparency report, detailing its approach and response to law enforcement data requests worldwide.

Government requests for the digital information of citizens around the world are growing exponentially. Google and Twitter revealed that a rising number of countries are using this mechanism to conduct investigations. Requests to Twitter jumped by 20% in the second quarter of 2012. Google also observed a jump of more than 70% of requests since 2009, totaling 21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users in the last six months of 2012.

NEW YORK — As more cell phone companies face increased pressure to release the data of their users, the privacy and safety of people everywhere is under greater threat.