Did Big Internet Companies Handicap Start-Ups in FISA Rule Changes?

A small but significant caveat in a new agreement brokered between the Obama administration and Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft could cast a long shadow over America’s technology start-ups.

Intelligence officials agreed only to allow communication providers to disclose more specific information about data sought by government agents because of a new provision that bars companies less than two years old from disclosing such information for a period of two years. That caveat effectively means that no one will know whether the government is eavesdropping on a new e-mail platform or chat service for two years. Ladar Levison, the founder of Lavabit, the email service used by Edward Snowden that was the target of a government investigation, said the new rules would cast a pall over new technology companies while doing little for the established companies.