PRISM

PRISMFacebook and Microsoft on Friday became the first Internet companies to disclose the total number of legal orders they receive for user data, including ones from the National Security Agency and from state, local, and federal police performing criminal investigations. The total for Facebook: About 18,000 accounts over a six month period, or one-thousandth of one percent of user accounts. Microsoft’s total was about 31,000 accounts over the same six month period ending December 31, 2012. A Google representative told CNET this evening that the search company is working on disclosing the same type of statistics, and plans to be more detailed than Microsoft and Facebook. Ted Ullyot, Facebook’s general counsel, disclosed the figures Friday in an effort to lay to rest privacy concerns after a pair of articles last week incorrectly reported that a “program” called PRISM provided the NSA with “direct access” to Internet companies’ servers.

Read the full story at CNET.

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