Apple, along with other tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, will reportedly publish a letter asking for increased transparency in U.S. government surveillance.
The letter will ask government leaders to let service providers report on national security-related information requests with more detail. Faced with accusations of surreptitious data harvesting from their users, these companies wish to regularly report the number of: requests for user information, individuals or accounts for which information was requested, and requests seeking communications and other information.
A government-issued transparency report is also sought by the coalition. “This information about how and how often the government is using these legal authorities is important to the American people, who are entitled to have an informed public debate about the appropriateness of those authorities and their use,” a copy of the letter reads.
