Yahoo and Facebook Join Google In FISC Petition After Government Talks Fail 114
msm1267 writes "Google, Yahoo and Facebook filed amended requests today with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court reiterating their desire to publish numbers on requests for user data related to national security. Google, meanwhile, went a step further asking for an open, public hearing with the court so that the issue could be publicly debated."
Statements from Yahoo's general counsel (filed motion [PDF]) and Facebook's general counsel (filed motion [PDF]). According to Facebook, "In recent weeks, it has become clear that the dialogue with the U.S. government that produced some additional transparency at the outset is at this point unlikely to result in more progress. As a result, today we are joining others in the industry in petitioning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to require the government to permit companies to disclose more information about the volume and types of national security-related orders they receive."
Re:You know that things are bad... (Score:5, Interesting)
When Google, Yahoo, and Facebook join together to assert that the state of surveillance on the internet is out of hand, you know you are totally fucked.
Actually, they seem to be claiming just the opposite. That they have been unfairly maligned by the Snowden leaks and they want to clear their names.
I'm not quite sure what they can say that would make me believe them. So far their public statements have felt like they were as ultra-parsed as the NSA's own denials.
Re:Gets popcorn (Score:4, Interesting)
Google, Yahoo, and Facebook weren't this vocal before the Snowden Chronicles. Disingenuous bullshit from all. This is only damage-control so they can continue making more money, it has nothing to do with your rights. Bootlicker.
-- Ethanol-fueled
Sure. It's damage control but look at it from their point of view. They are getting orders from a secret court. If they complain in a manner that is legal, nobody hears it. Nothing changes. If they complain in a manner that could get the public's attention, employees risk criminal prosecution, the company loses credibility (because it looks like they are the ones collaborating), AND nothing may change. Damned if you don't. Double damned if you do.
After Snowden, the damage is done, and their best course of action is to raise as much of a stink as much as possible. Which still looks lame because the law is written to squash effective opposition and no one wants to go to jail over this.
I'm sure you think you would be willing to be the hero. But do you really want to be prosecuted for a federal offense in a secret court?
I am a Chinese, and an American ! (Score:5, Interesting)
But if you're chinese in china, how (aside from being a rich oligarch) are you going to use the internet at all without a firewall?
How disingenuous you want to become ?
I am a Chinese and I am an American citizen, and I do have business in China, and yes, I sometime find myself INSIDE CHINA.
But the key point is NOT what's happening in China - for China, at least, up to now, NEVER PRETEND TO BE A DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY.
China never, at least not to my knowledge, use "human rights", "democracy", "equality" and all those shit, as "weapons of publicity" to shame other countries.
On the other hand, my country, the United States of America, has been doing just that, for at least the past 5 decades.
The United States has criticized other countries, from Russia to China to Sudan to North Korea for their lack of "democracy", "human rights", "equality" (not that those countries don't deserved to be criticized") but I find it utterly hypocritical for the United States, and for YOU, to use China as the RED HERRING to shore up your inane argument FOR the current repressive government of the United States of America.