The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts,”said Facebook. According to Facebook, then, the number of data requests made by law enforcement and intelligence services represent a “tiny fraction of one percent of our user accounts.”
Along with other implicated companies, such as Yahoo and Google, Microsoft and Facebook sought greater leeway from the government to disclose information regarding secret court orders compelling them to hand over user data, ostensibly in the interests of national security.
According to James Clapper, head of US national intelligence, Internet companies implicated under the PRISM program were receiving legal orders sent to them “pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.” In theory, judges must evaluate whether a request is “reasonably designed” to exclude Americans.