Tag Archives: TransparencyReport

The NSA releases its first transparency report under the US Freedom Act

Posted on by
Back in June, President Obama signed the USA Freedom Act into law. The bill finally put limitations on the NSA's ability to bulk collect telephone data under the controversial section 215 of the Patriot Act. As part of the new bill, the NSA was compe...

Microsoft outlines 66,539 account requests from law enforcement during first half of 2013

Posted on by

We've covered various transparency reports before, but now the whole notion takes on a different feel in our post-PRISM world. Microsoft's latest report details that it received 37,196 requests from law enforcement agencies between this January and June, which impacted 66,539 of its accounts. Seventy-seven percent of those requests were for data like a user's name, IP history and billing address, and with 21 percent of requests, no data was disclosed at all. However, in 2.19 percent of queries by law enforcement, Redmond disclosed "at least some" customer content. What does that mean? Well, the company's definition includes the subject or body of an email, photos stored in SkyDrive and address book info. According to the document, the info was all obtained via lawful warrants and court orders.

While National Security Letters also fall under the guise of law enforcement requests -- which primarily come from the FBI in order to obtain records such as phone numbers and email addresses -- Microsoft is only allowed to publish these statistics on an annual basis. Hence, they're absent this time around, and will be published in the company's next Law Enforcement Requests Report. To see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, do check out the source. We suggest putting on a pot of coffee, though -- it's not a quick read.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Microsoft

LinkedIn petitions court to provide more details regarding government data requests

Posted on by

LinkedIn petitions court for more transparency in government data requests

It's not just the heaviest of the internet heavyweights pushing for greater government transparency. LinkedIn has filed its own petition with the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court asking for the ability to publish the exact number of national security requests that it gets. The social network argues that restricting data request numbers to vague ranges is not only pointless, but misleading -- the figures imply that the government wants as much data from LinkedIn as it does from larger firms. There's no certainty that the court will grant the company's wish, but its petition adds volume to an increasingly louder chorus.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: LinkedIn

Yahoo issues first transparency report, replete with governmental data requests

Posted on by

Yahoo issues first transparency report, replete with governmental data requests

Following in the footsteps of Facebook -- which revealed its first Global Government Requests Report just a few weeks ago -- Yahoo is finishing out the week by publishing data of its own. The firm's first "global law enforcement transparency report" covers governmental requests for user data from January 1st through June 30th of this year, and the outfit plans to put out subsequent reports every six months. Of note, Yahoo claims that it's including "national security requests within the scope of [its] aggregate statistics," and for the paranoid in attendance, you may be relieved to know that said requests comprise "less than one one-hundredth of one percent (<.01%)" of Yahoo's global userbase. Feel free to dig in at the links below, but sadly, you won't find anything other than high-level macro figures. (As an aside, that logo.)

Filed under:

Comments

Via: Tumblr (Yahoo)

Source: Yahoo Transparency Report

Google Transparency Report now tracks malware and phishing sites

Posted on by

Google Transparency Report now tracks malware and phishing attacks

Google's Transparency Report has long warned us about the dangers of government overreach, but that's not the only threat online -- there's plenty of malware to go around. Accordingly, Google is expanding its report to show the volumes of virus-infected and phishing sites found through the company's Safe Browsing technology. The data includes both attacking and victim pages, and it shows how well web hosts cope with successful infections. Combined, the new information doesn't paint a pretty picture. Google spotted a total of 67,909 compromised sites just in mid-June, and it still takes over a month for most affected webmasters to scrub their servers clean. The Safe Browsing data isn't very reassuring, then, but it is a friendly reminder to be careful on the web.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Google Online Security Blog

Source: Google Transparency Report

Google Transparency Report shows censorship spike, details takedown requests

Posted on by

Google Transparency Report shows censorship spike, details takedown requests

Governments are getting nosier than ever, at least if you ask Google. The search firm has already noticed rapidly mounting censorship in recent months, but its latest half-year Transparency Report has revealed a 26 percent surge in takedown requests toward the end of 2012 -- at 2,285 total, more than twice as many as in 2009. Much of the jump can be attributed to Brazil, whose municipal election triggered a rush of anti-defamation requests from candidates, as well as a Russian blacklisting law that allows for trial-free website takedowns.

Whether or not the heat dies down in 2013, we'll have a better sense of just what happens when a YouTube request comes down the pipe. From now on, Google will say whether government-based demands to remove videos were based on YouTube's Community Guidelines or were directly linked to regional laws. Google isn't any more inclined to comply with such requests -- it argues those Brazilian clips are free speech, for example -- but we'll have a better sense of just how easy it is for the company to say no.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Google Official Blog

Source: Google Transparency Report

Microsoft posts its first Law Enforcement Requests Report, shows US-centric scrutiny

Posted on by

Microsoft posts its first Law Enforcement Requests Report, shows US-centric scrutiny

Civil liberty advocates have had access to Google's Transparency Report and a handful of equivalents to understand just how frequently governments want our data. But what if we spend most of our time in Outlook.com, Skype or Xbox Live? Microsoft wants to show that it's equally concerned, and it's accordingly publishing its first-ever Law Enforcement Requests Report to reveal just how much attention the police gave to our information in 2012. The gist? While there were 75,378 international requests, 99 percent of the 1,558 actual content disclosures went straight to American agencies -- thankfully, with court warrants. Microsoft did get its fair share of FBI National Security Letter requests, although those may be short-lived. Different Microsoft services also received different levels of attention: Skype handed over certain account details but no actual content, while enterprise users were virtually untouched from Microsoft's position. The company plans to keep publishing these reports in the future, which should give us a better long-term sense of just how we're put under the microscope.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Official Microsoft Blog

Source: Microsoft