Microsoft Pushes Harder to Talk About Surveillance Orders

Microsoft called on Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr to give the company permission to talk about how it handles government surveillance requests.

The move represents an escalation of Microsoft’s campaign to speak more freely about the national security orders it receives for e-mails, Internet phone calls and other communications by users of Microsoft services. Secrecy laws severely limit what Microsoft and others can say about those orders, particularly the surveillance requests issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Microsoft and other companies have been frustrated by government limits on how they can respond to news stories about government surveillance orders. In a letter that Bradford Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, sent to AG Holder, Smith said the company had not made “adequate progress” in its discussions with the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and other members of intelligence agencies about sharing more details about its compliance with surveillance orders. Microsoft petitioned the government on June 19 to let it publish how many national security requests it has received. The company says the government has not yet responded to the request.