Google Challenges NSA Secrecy in FISA Court
Google has petitioned a secret U.S. national security court to relax restrictions on the information the tech giant can disclose about government data requests, claiming such restrictions violate the company’s right to free speech under the First Amendment. Google’s motion, filed Tuesday with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, is the tech giant’s latest attempt to address recent media reports that suggested it gives the National Security Agency unfettered or “direct” access to user data.
Google and other large Internet companies, including Apple, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft, have come under intense scrutiny following reports that the NSA uses a classified U.S. intelligence system called Prism to examine data — including e-mails, videos and online chats — that it collects via requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Following those reports, the tech giants have vigorously pushed back against the notion that they allow the government unfettered or “direct” access to their servers.