Google pressed the government to allow it to publish more granular data on national security requests than Facebook or Microsoft published, and said anything less did not provide enough transparency.

We have always believed that it's important to differentiate between different types of government requests. We already publish criminal requests separately from National Security Letters: http://goo.gl/OCFck Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users. Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately.

For more background please read this New York Times piece: http://goo.gl/t5P7e

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