Microsoft: Foreign Surveillance Requests Under FISA Shot Up in 2016

Microsoft said that from January- to June 2016, it received between 1,000 and 1,499 tracking orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for revealing user content, the highest request to the company since 2011, Reuters reports. The report further says user accounts fell from 17,500-17,999 to 12,000-12,499 during this period.

The FISA request data was included in a recent biannual transparency report published by Microsoft, along with a national security letter under the USA Freedom Act.

FISA orders are tightly guarded secrets and issued by judges of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, but the Trump administration is currently scrutinizing the scope of such orders following the president's "unsubstantiated allegations" of spying by the Obama administration, Reuters said.

FISA will partly expire by year end unless renewed. Efforts are under way by several members of the Congress to define the transparency of such a rule as well as usage limits of data collected.

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