Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Move Towards Transparency On NSA Leak

In early June, 29-year-old Edward Snowden leaked classified government information regarding the large-scale surveillance of phone calls and Internet data by the US government.The controversy has caused massive public outcry for and against the government’s actions.Since the initial report from the Guardian and Washington Post, tech companies, in the interest of transparency, have been releasing information regarding their compliance with the government’s programs.In a company blog post on Tuesday, Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer said that Yahoo received between 12,000 and 13,000 data requests from law enforcement, which include requests by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).Yahoo is not alone in this trend towards transparency. Yesterday, Apple revealed it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests for access to accounts and devices and on June 14, Facebook said it had received between 9,000 and10,000 requests for access to as many as 19,000 accounts. Microsoft also revealed that it had received between 6,000 and 7,000 requests affecting 32,000 consumer accounts.In support of the surveillance, the director of the National Security Administration told Congress today that confidential NSA tracking has prevented more than 50 potential terror plots since 9/11.