Making Surveillance a Little Less Opaque

[Commentary] One of the most disturbing aspects of the surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden is how little we knew about the information federal agencies have collected about millions of people.

That is partly because these agencies have put severe limits on how much private telephone and Internet companies can disclose about the data they have been ordered to turn over to the government. The new rules will now allow companies to disclose the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act orders as well as the national security letters -- but, again, only in broad ranges. They can also disclose how many users were affected but not the nature of the information they turned over to the government. Simply put, the new rules will not appreciably improve the public’s understanding of the surveillance system or its ability to push back. What is clear is that government officials have not budged from their belief that Americans should simply trust them to do the right thing.