• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 6, 2013

Apple is joining Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn in their fightto publish data about the National Security Agency's request for user information.

Apple, like the other tech companies, says it should be able to reveal the total number of requests it receives from the government, as well as the total number of user accounts affected. “Nothing in FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) or any other law prohibits providers from disclosing aggregate information about the number of demands they receive,” the company argues in a friend-of-the-court brief filed on Tuesday. Apple also argues in its court papers that it has a First Amendment right to disclose the information.

Currently, the company is allowed to reveal some broad data, but the gag order prevents it from disclosing the total number of requests received or accounts affected. Apple released some of that information this week, with its first public report on demands for information by the government. The report shows that law enforcement sought information about between 2,000 and 3,000 account holders in the first six months of this year. Apple provided information for fewer than 1,000 accounts during that time.

Those requests tended to involve people's “personal data and their use of an online service in which they have an expectation of privacy, such as government requests for customer identifying information, email, stored photographs, or other user content stored online,” the company says.

Apple also points out that most of the requests it receives relate to devices, like stolen iPhones, but not particular account holders. “Many of the device requests we receive are initiated by our own customers working together with law enforcement,” Apple says. In all, the company gave law enforcement information about 3,110 devices in the first half of this year.

Apple's report -- like the transparency reports issued by Google and other tech companies -- only deals with official requests for information. But the NSA also taps directly into networks run by some tech companies, according to recent reports. Those allegations have riled the tech industry, prompting cries for oversight. Today, reports surfaced that Google has taken action to thwart such surveillance by encrypting its network. Google also plans to testify next week at a hearing convened by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), which will address surveillance by the NSA.