Google has explicitly denied passing on user data to the NSA.  Whistleblower Edward Snowden begs to differ, saying he can access your emails and chat records at the click of a mouse button. So is someone not telling the truth? Or has the NSA simply found a way to access Google’s servers without it knowing?

We don’t have the answers to these questions, but in an attempt to shed some more light on the matter, Google, along with Facebook and Microsoft, are now asking the government to let them disclose as much information on the cooperation they provide as possible.

Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond today published an open letter addressed to the FBI and Attorney General Eric Holder, in which he states that the company is frustrated that it’s being forced to comply with requests under the FISA act, without disclosing any details of them.

Unfortunately, that’s the nature of FISA:

“We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures—in terms of both the number we receive and their scope. Google’s numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide.”

The plea comes in the wake of last week’s revelations from former NSA contractor Snowden that the agency has installed some kind of data gathering system that allows authorities unlimited access to the servers of companies like Google and Facebook. Known as PRISM, the program has caused outrage with certain privacy groups, politicians and some individuals, who accuse the government and tech companies of basically spying on people without their knowledge. The matter has since been complicated by the government’s apparent admission that PRISM does indeed exist, while the nine tech companies involved all continue to protest their innocence.

One of the theories is that PRISM is somehow linked to the FISA Act, which make it possible for the government to obtain data and communications from persons outside the US, or from people communicating with someone from outside the country. The reason for this link is that FISA appears to be the only piece of legislation that would make such a program lawful.

Google already discloses a certain amount of government data requests each year. Specifically, it’s allowed to provide details of requests it receives from regular law enforcement agencies under a warrant, as well as information pertaining to the number of National Security Letters it receives each year, even if these details are rather vague. However, the one thing it’s not allowed to publish is any data pertaining to the requests it receives under section 702 of FISA – indeed, today’s request for transparency can only be made public because the FBI has since admitted PRISM’s existence.

Just a Face-Saving Exercise?

So why is Google asking for more transparency now? One can’t help but wonder if this is just some kind of smokescreen or PR stunt, since we don’t know for certain that FISA is even related to PRISM – no one has told us how it works.

Moreover, as ValleyWag’s Sam Biddle points out, if Google is so concerned about FISA, then why hasn’t it tried to do something about it before? It’s certainly had plenty of opportunity to do so, as FISA needs to be reauthorized by Congress every year. According to Biddle, AT&T, HP, Microsoft and Verizon have all tried to influence FISA in the past, yet Google, despite spending more than $44 million on lobbying to date, has never attempted to change FISA’s rules.

There are many unanswered questions, and clearly someone isn’t telling the whole truth – though it remains to be seen who. For now though, Google and the others clearly feel the need to fight the perception that they’re somehow being complicit in all of this – they want to be seen to be doing something, and today’s request for greater transparency achieves that goal, whether the government complies with it or not.