Well it's good to know that even without Snowden's leaks that Facebook, Google etc. 'believe that the public has a right to know about the volume and types of national security requests [they] receive', and therefore they would definitely have filed their lawsuits and petitioned the government in this way even if the leaks hadn't come to light. ... Right?
Slight transparency, got that right, what they have agreed to is utterly pointless, so we can find out that the NSA made 1000's of requests for personal info from facebook users, so what, we know they are doing it, means nothing
At least in Google's case, I like to think so. Back in an earlier day they were the only major tech company who told the government "you want our data? Go get a warrant". They have been consistently reluctant to just hand over data without at least some sort of due process, both in the US and abroad. In some cases, such as China, they have bowed to oppressive government regulations in able to operate, but haven't just rolled over for anyone who claims to be with the government. The big tech companies don't benefit from massive government surveillance of their customers, and are losing at least some of their reputation now that it has been revealed.
I expect these firms will offer "regional" servers to avoid this problem. What they won't tell us is that they'll be backed up to their US servers regularly.
Slight transparency.. oh yeah like a frosted window more like. What they tell us and what they will actually do I suspect will remain two completely different things. They will still request data en masse but will probably not do it so blatantly or as much. They will simply move their data acquisition to a more secure facility with people they know they can trust and who are under tighter scrutiny, Better not contract it out again then eh guys?
