Tag Archives: NationalSecurity

Microsoft follows Google’s lead, files request to reveal more data about FISA orders

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Microsoft follows Google's lead, files to reveal more data about FISA requests

The Wall Street Journal reports that in a move similar to Google's request last week, Microsoft has submitted a motion to the secret FISA court to authorize the release of "aggregate data" about the requests it has received. Microsoft published the information it has so far been authorized to reveal a couple of weeks ago, lumping in national security related requests with stats for other criminal warrants and subpoenas. Google and Twitter have been among the loudest requesting the ability to separate national security-related requests like those at the center of the PRISM controversy, however it's been reported that several companies are negotiating for the ability to be more specific.

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Source: Microsoft Motion (PDF), Wall Street Journal

Google, Twitter push to reveal number of national security related requests separately

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While Microsoft and Facebook have both published information tonight about how many requests for customer info the government made over a six month period, Google and Twitter are apparently hoping to take a different route. As Google told AllThingsD and Twitter legal director Benjamin Lee tweeted, "it's important to be able to publish numbers of national security requests-including FISA disclosures-separately." Google went further, claiming that lumping the number of National Security Letters together with criminal requests would be a "step backwards." Clearly this post-PRISM revelations battle for more transparency on just what the government is doing behind the scenes isn't over, we'll let you know if any of the parties involved have more information to share.

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Source: AllThingsD, Benjamin Lee (Twitter), Google (Google+)

Facebook reveals government data request numbers, is first to include national security stats

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Facebook reveals government data request numbers, is first to include national security stats

Facebook lawyer Ted Ullyot revealed in a post tonight precisely how many user-data requests it receives from government entities, and that it's negotiated the ability to include national security-related (FISA and National Security Letters) inquiries in the report. Until now, the companies that receive such requests, whether through the recently uncovered PRISM program or not, have not been able to say anything about them, or report how many there are. Still, the stats it's able to release aren't specific, and include all requests from the last six months in a range, said to be between 9,000 and 10,000, covering between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts. We still have no official reports on what those inquiries cover, how wide reaching a single one can be or what information has been passed along. Facebook however, is quick to point out that these cover "only a tiny fraction of one percent" of its 1.1 billion active user accounts.

Along with Microsoft and Google, Facebook has publicly petitioned the government to let it be more transparent about the size and scope of the requests it receives, and Reuters reports tonight that "several" internet companies have struck an agreement to do so. Expect more reports to arrive soon in similar formats, however Ullyot states Facebook will continue to push the government to be "as transparent as possible."

For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) - was between 9,000 and 10,000. These requests run the gamut - from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

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Source: Facebook

US Federal judge finds National Security Letters’ gag provision unconstitutional

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US Federal judge finds National Security Letters unconstitutional

Woo, boy. You know those National Security Letters that the FBI has been issuing at its own discretion -- the ones Google has been doing its best to track? Judge Susan Illston of Federal District Court in San Francisco just found 'em unconstitutional. As the story goes, NSLs arrive from the factory with a gag order on the recipient, and as Illston sees it, forbidding the recipient from "disclosing that they had received such an order." So, she's suggesting that the whole thing should be banned under the First Amendment.

Moreover, she's ordering the US government to stop enforcing the gag provision in any lingering cases, though she reportedly "stayed her order for 90 days to give the government a chance to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals." Needless to say, the move comes as a blow to the existing administration's surveillance practices, but something tells us this isn't the last word we'll be hearing on the matter. Hit up the links below for a look at the decision.

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Via: The New York Times

Source: Wired

Huawei complains about US spying allegations, implies McCarthy-style victimization

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Huawei complains about US spying allegations, implies McCarthystyle victimhood"We must remember always that accusation is not proof." So begins a report sponsored and published by Huawei, heavily quoting a 1954 US Senate report that condemned McCarthy and his anti-Communist hysteria. The document is a prelude to Huawei's forthcoming public testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives' Intelligence Committee, and its message is clear: the Chinese manufacturer is tired of how it's being treated in America, where numerous telecoms contracts have been blocked over "national security concerns." Huawei wants to be seen as an "opportunity" rather than a "threat," claiming it has scope to expand its 140,000 workforce and would love to create more jobs in America -- if only the US government would remove its "roadblock."

Many other arguments are put forward, but some of the most interesting paragraphs deal with the background of Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei. The document claims that Zhengfei has been "tragically misunderstood" and that his alleged roles in the People's Liberation Army and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are "unsubstantiated." The report doesn't deny those memberships ever existed, but instead downplays their significance -- for example by insisting that the CCP is now focused on promoting "private entrepreneurs" and "democratization." We admittedly stopped reading at that point, but if you'd like to continue then the full 78-page PDF, written by Dan Steinbock of the India, China and America Institute, is linked below.

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Huawei complains about US spying allegations, implies McCarthy-style victimization originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Huawei 2011 financials: 20 million smartphones sold yet profit down 53 percent

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Huawei's annual earnings report is out and it's a mixed bag, since while turnover increased by 11.7 percent to 203.9 RMB ($32.3 billion), profits plummeted 53 percent to 11.6 billion RMB ($1.8 billion). Revenue from overseas sales (138.4 billion RMB) equated for over half the company's total income and it boasted of having sold 150 million consumer devices, including 20 million smartphones in the year. The company didn't provide reasons for the drop in profit, emphasizing that it's increased R&D spending by 34.2 percent to 23.7 billion RMB ($3.75 billion) and that in any event, it's got around $30 billion of assets that can shoulder the brunt of a bad year.

However, the company may not see a rosy 2012 either, after both America and Australia refused to give the company big infrastructure deals (Huawei's bread and butter) thanks to allegedly close relationships between the company and the Chinese government. It seems to be following a similar trajectory to rival ZTE, which also felt margins squeeze as it entered the global retail space and felt the heat when its political dealings were thrown in the spotlight.

Continue reading Huawei 2011 financials: 20 million smartphones sold yet profit down 53 percent

Huawei 2011 financials: 20 million smartphones sold yet profit down 53 percent originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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