Apple picker An alliance of U.S. IT companies, including the Big Five, AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, named in the NSA's Prism project, along with human rights groups, sent a disclosure request to President Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives data on accesses to secret databases.
AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are among the 46 signatories to the letter demanding the release of "certain numbers" of requests made through the Patriot Acts and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The six companies mentioned are among the participants in the Prism project. Altogether, 22 companies and 24 different groups, including the ACLU and the EFF, signed the letter, which has taken a strongly critical stance against the NSA and its data collection over the past two months. US phone companies such as AT&T and Verizon did not join the signatories. In June, the Guardian published a document outlining Verizon's commitment to providing phone call information -- phone numbers, times and lengths of calls. This started a wide-ranging discussion about user privacy.
The demand for data disclosure is growing following the gradual disclosure of the practices of the US government and the NSA in connection with personal data. There was quite a heated debate on Wednesday between Democrats and Republicans, who argued that the government had overstepped its authority by collecting the data. Some have indicated that they will not seek to extend the NSA's authority to collect similar information to that mentioned above.
The signatories of the letter also demand that the government publish its annual "transparency report", where it should list the exact number of government accesses to electronic databases. At the same time, they are asking the Senate and Congress to enforce laws requiring increased transparency of the US government and the possibility of IT companies accessing the collected information and its public publication.
The letter follows similar demands brought before the US government by companies such as: Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. The current request is more focused, however, as some have begun to worry about the impact of discovering that the NSA has access to information stored on Google or Microsoft's cloud servers. At the same time, Facebook, Yahoo and Apple are worried about the erosion of their customers' trust.
