it comes to private citizens’ digital or telephone communications. In the wake of the NSA spying scandal, Americans are waking up to the fact that the federal government believes it’s entitled to scrutinize most communications, regardless of whether civil libertarians and individual citizens agree.

The most recent news about government overreach into Americans’ private business comes in the form of a report stating that the federal government regularly asks Web firms for encrypted password information for certain customers so it could (theoretically) peruse all the information in those accounts. Government agencies could even (the more conspiracy-minded suggest), impersonate Americans via those accounts.

So far, there is no direct evidence that the feds have demanded password information for Web services. CNet’s Declan McCullagh recently quizzed a number of the most prominent Web services companies and received a mixed back of responses.


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“A Microsoft (News - Alert) spokesperson would not say whether the company has received such requests from the government,” McCullagh wrote. “But when asked whether Microsoft would divulge passwords, salts [a random string of letters or numbers that helps maintain encryption], or algorithms, the spokesperson replied: ‘No, we don't, and we can't see a circumstance in which we would provide it.’”

Google (News - Alert), which declined to say whether or not it has received requests, nonetheless told McCullough that the company has never turned over a user's encrypted passwords to any government agency. The search giant did say that it has a legal team that frequently pushes back against requests that are fishing expeditions or are otherwise problematic.

"We take the privacy and security of our users very seriously," a Google spokesperson told McCullough.

Yahoo also declined to say whether it has received government requests for passwords, but a spokesperson said that the company would “deny such requests on the grounds that they would allow overly broad access to our users' private information. If we are required to provide information, we do so only in the strictest interpretation of what is required by law."

Apple (News - Alert), Facebook, AOL, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Comcast did not reply to CNet’s request for information on the topic, and the FBI declined to comment.

The truth of the matter is that given the broad leeway the Patriot (News - Alert) Act gives the federal government to snoop, if push came to shove and tech companies were ordered to turn over information, it would ultimately be difficult for them to refuse, no matter how much they say they would push back in order to keep user information private.

"The authority of the government is essentially limitless" under the Patriot Act, according to Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who serves on the Senate Intelligence committee.

In other words, expect a lot of bluster from Web services companies when it comes to privacy, but know that when it wants your information, the federal government will probably get your information.