Amazon is slamming rumors that it is participating in the U.S. government's surveillance program by releasing its first transparency report. The data reveals that the company has received up to 249 national security requests between Jan. 1 and May 31.
"Amazon does not disclose customer information unless we're required to do so to comply with a legally valid and binding order. Unless prohibited from doing so or there is clear indication of illegal conduct in connection with the use of Amazon products or services, Amazon notifies customers before disclosing content information," Stephen Schmidt, chief information security officer for Amazon Web Services, wrote in a blog post.
"Amazon never participated in the NSA's PRISM program," he added.
The online retail giant is finally following the steps of Google, Facebook, Snapchat and other large tech firms that have been releasing transparency reports. The Transparency Report, which began in 2010, offers evidence of how policies and laws affect access to data online and for over the past four years, one customary activity has remained standing still: the government's requests to remove political content.
Amazon is handling a number of requests that are much lower than other companies. For instance, Facebook received more than 15,000 requests between July and December 2014, while Google received 3,846 government in the first half of 2013. Snapchat, on the other hand, handled 375 requests from government agencies between November 2014 and February 2015.
The three-page transparency report detailed the types of information requests received by the company, such as subpoenas, search warrants, other court orders, national security requests and foreign data requests.
In the first half of 2015, Amazon received 813 subpoenas, 25 search warrants, 13 court orders, 249 national security requests, and 132 foreign requests. There is also one removal request that the company complied with due to valid legal process.
