US relaxes gag order, permitting Google, Facebook et al to disclose scope of NSA access. But what if the firms don’t know the extent of NSA access?
Ever since Edward Snowden began leaking classified documents about NSA surveillance, Google and other tech companies have wanted to reveal the extent of NSA’s access—pursuant to orders of the secret FISA Court—to their customers’ accounts. They have wanted to disclose specifics on NSA access not just because they care about transparency, but because they expected the information to be reassuring: showing the actual incidence of court-sanctioned surveillance to be much lower than customers feared, based