MANILA, Philippines – A coalition of more than 60 technology companies, trade organizations, and non-profit organizations have formally released a letter for greater US transparency in its national security and surveillance.

As earlier reported by AllThingsD, the letter urges “greater transparency around national security-related requests by the US government to Internet, telephone, and web-based service providers for information about their users and subscribers.”

The letter, provided by the Center for Democracy and Technology, also asks the US government to allow “companies who are entrusted with the privacy and security of their users’ data” to publish more specific information about the data requests they receive from the US government.

This transparency initiative would include being able to outline what laws or legal authorities were used to request information, the number of people, accounts, or devices affected by each request, and what sort of content was asked for under each legal authority.

The coalition also urges the government to augment the reports of individual companies by providing their own transparency report.

The coalition letter follows after individual companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, asked for greater transparency individually after a report stating that the US government was mining data from them.

“Just as the United States has long been an innovator when it comes to the Internet and products and services that rely upon the Internet,” the coalition writes, “so too should it be an innovator when it comes to creating mechanisms to ensure that government is transparent, accountable, and respectful of civil liberties and human rights.”

Read the full letter below:

– Rappler.com