Google has challenged the US government's gag order on tech firms which have been the focal point of US security investigations.
The search giant wants the approval for greater transparency from the US courts, stating that it believes it has a constitutional free speech right to publish the statistics of national security requests it receives from the US government.
Google's legal filing comes on the back of increasing scrutiny being placed on technology giants including Microsoft, Facebook and Apple after the disclosure of the National Security Agency's (NSA) secret Prism programme.
The search giant already publishes its Transparency Report every six months in which it identifies requests from public bodies for the removal of content and shows the number of requests it has received for access to its users' private information.
In a Google+ blog, the company said it has long pushed for transparency so users can better understand the extent to which governments request their data.
Google also claimed it was the first company to release numbers for National Security Letters [information demands issued by the US government] issued against it; however, Google stated that it wanted to provide even more transparency for its users.
"Greater transparency is needed, so today we have petitioned the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow us to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) disclosures, separately," the company said.
"Lumping national security requests together with criminal requests – as some companies have permitted to do – would be a backward step for our users."
