Facebook, Microsoft release surveillance data requests from US.

Facebook and Microsoft have struck agreements with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive. The companies aim to avert a fallout from their users as they far their private data could be sold off to US intelligence agencies.

Facebook became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests, saying that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 U.S. requests for user data in the second half of 2012, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of
its users' accounts. Facebook has more than 1.1 billion users worldwide.

Microsoft said it had received requests of all types for information on about 31,000 consumer accounts in the second half of 2012.
Google said late Friday that it was negotiating with the government and that the sticking point was whether it could only publish a combined figure for all requests.

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