Microsoft says it has received at least 1000 surveillance requests from US govt in 1H 2016

Image Credits: REUTERS

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it had received at least a thousand surveillance requests from the US government that sought user content for foreign intelligence purposes during the first half of 2016.

The amount, shared in Microsoft’s biannual transparency report, was more than double what the company said it received under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the preceding six-month interval, and was the highest the company has listed since 2011, when it began tracking such government surveillance orders.

The scope of spying authority granted to US intelligence agencies under FISA has come under renewed scrutiny in recent weeks, sparked in part by evolving, unsubstantiated assertions from President Donald Trump and other Republicans that the Obama White House improperly spied on Trump and his associates.

Microsoft said it received between 1,000 and 1,499 FISA orders for user content between January and June of 2016, compared to between 0 and 499 during both January-June 2015 as well as the second half of 2015.

The number of user accounts impacted by FISA orders fell during the same period, however, from between 17,500 and 17,999 to between 12,000 and 12,499, according to the report.

The US government only allows companies to report the volume of FISA requests in wide bands rather than specific numbers.

FISA orders, which are approved by judges who sit on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, are tightly guarded national security secrets. Even the existence of a specific FISA order is rarely disclosed publicly.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the FBI obtained a FISA order to monitor the communications of former Trump advisor Carter Page as part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.

Parts of FISA will expire at the end of the year, unless US lawmakers vote to reauthorise it. Privacy advocates in Congress have been working to attach new transparency and oversight reforms to any FISA legislation, and to limit government searches of American data that is incidentally collected during foreign surveillance operations.

Microsoft also for the first time published a national security letter, a type of warrantless surveillance order used by the FBI.

Other technology companies, including Twitter Inc and Yahoo Inc, have also disclosed national security letters in recent months under a transparency measure of the USA Freedom Act that was enacted into law by the US Congress in 2015.

Reuters

Publish date: April 14, 2017 11:52 am| Modified date: April 14, 2017 11:52 am

Yahoo hacks: European Union is not satisfied with US’ explanation regarding Yahoo email scanning orders

Image: Reuters

  12 Jan 2017 , 10:45

The United States has not satisfied the European Union’s concerns about Yahoo’s scanning of all customers’ incoming emails for US intelligence purposes, the bloc’s justice chief told Reuters in an interview.

The European Commission, the EU executive, asked the United States in November for clarifications on the secret court order served to Yahoo as part of its monitoring of a new transatlantic pact facilitating the exchange of personal data by businesses.

To clinch an agreement on the EU-US Privacy Shield, as the data transfer framework is known, Washington pledged not to engage in mass, indiscriminate surveillance.

(Also Read: Yahoo is going to be renamed to Altaba following Verizon acquisition, Marissa Mayer to resign from board)

That allayed Commission concerns for the privacy of Europeans’ data stored on US servers raised by disclosures of intrusive US surveillance programmes in 2013 by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

“I am not satisfied because to my taste the answer came relatively late and relatively general, and I will make clear at the first possible opportunity to the American side that this is not how we understand good, quick and full exchange of information,” EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said in the interview.

While Yahoo is not signed up to the Privacy Shield and the scanning took place before the framework existed, the issue is a first test case of how the new system, which underpins $260 billion of trade in digital services, and the US commitments on spying work in practice, an EU official said.

The Privacy Shield allows businesses to seamlessly move Europeans’ personal data across the Atlantic, whether for completing credit card transactions, hotel bookings or analysing browsing habits to serve targeted ads, while complying with strict EU data protection rules.

“I understand that the American side, when it comes to national security issues, cannot be fully concrete,” Jourova said.

(Also Read: Yahoo to be called ‘Altaba’; what’s in a name?)

Nevertheless, she said, she still expects more detailed information on what happened and the reasons for which Yahoo was asked to scan customer emails.

Reuters reported in October that Yahoo scanned all incoming emails for a digital signature linked to a foreign state sponsor of terrorism at the behest of an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The Privacy Shield foresees an annual review to ensure the United States is abiding by its commitments and that the framework is effective. The first annual review will take place this summer, under now President-elect Donald Trump.

Jourova said she was not concerned by the incoming Trump administration but that she would closely monitor what he would do with the US government’s presidential policy directive on US surveillance activities and a newly established US ombudsperson office in the State Department to handle complaints from EU citizens about US spying.

“I would expect that Trump’s administration would understand what is good and what is bad for business. This is good for business,” she said, referring to the Privacy Shield.

“We need to see that we can still trust.”

Reuters