The U.S. court responsible for reviewing and approving surveillance requests for government agencies is accountable to the government and not “to the trend that promotes justice,” one of Microsoft.
Brad Smith of Microsoft’s legal department said the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which hears applications and appeals involving the U.S. government’s efforts to collect data in the name of national security, operates differently than most other courts because “only one side gets to speak, and only one side gets to be informed.” The court issues legal decisions “that the American public is not allowed to read,” Smith said in a speech at the Brookings Institute.
The court, which has been in existence for 35 years, is a panel of judges that hears government surveillance requests in national security cases. It came to prominence in the wake of the Snowden revelations about the National Security Agency's (NSA) data collection programs. The court's decisions and most of the documents filed in the court are secret, which Smith says makes it very difficult for those who want to challenge the government's requests to have a fair trial.
“This is not an approach that promotes justice,” Smith said. Microsoft is among U.S. technology companies that have previously sued the government and demanded it reveal more details about secret U.S. surveillance requests.
“It’s hard to be a litigant in this court,” Smith said. “Don’t we at least deserve the right to read what the government is saying?”
Smith’s criticism of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is part of a growing chorus of criticism from several U.S. companies about government surveillance efforts, a year after Snowden’s revelations.
Of course, nothing has been done, and it’s unlikely that anything will. After all the information we’ve learned in the past year, who can trust governments and corporations anymore? Why aren’t Smith’s statements just another smokescreen? After all, the public loves to read such statements.
Source: secnews.gr
