Amazon has released its first-ever transparency report

Amazon has disclosed how many government data demands it receives — finally. Stephen Schmidt, chief information security officer for Amazon Web Services, broke the company’s years of silence in a blog post late Friday. “Where we need to act publicly to protect customers, we do,” said Schmidt. “Amazon never participated in the NSA’s PRISM program,” he added, despite no evidence to date showing that the company had been forced to hand over data through the clandestine surveillance program. Despite it being known best for its online retail business, its cloud services power millions of apps, sites, and services around the world. But the news couldn’t come soon enough. Amazon is the last major technology company in the Fortune 500 to disclose how many times governments have come knocking on its door, demanding customer and user data. Amazon, known by insiders for being notoriously secretive, was at no point under a legal obligation to report its numbers, but had faced mounting pressure in the face of transparency reports becoming an industry norm. Schmidt said the report, which covers the six months starting January 1 and ending May 31, will be released biannually.