After a year of learning about the U.S. National Security Agency's internet spying programs, at home and abroad, frustration has led major U.S. technology companies to defiantly change their transparency policies. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook have all announced they're updating their policies to inform users when the government requests a seizure of their data.

Yahoo had already announced similar changes to its transparency policy last July, and now the arguably top four giants of the tech industry have moved together to effect the same changes, according to The Washington Post. In effect, these five companies will no longer comply with the U.S. government-pushed custom of silently giving up user information, unless specifically ordered by a judge or other legal authority on a case-by-case basis. For example, with Apple, company spokesperson Kristin Huguet told WaPo, "Later this month, Apple will update its policies so that in most cases when law enforcement requests personal information about a customer, the customer will receive a notification from Apple."  

All of these major tech companies have been acquiescent to the NSA's PRISM program, which has routinely collected data on some users for years, but the new policies can't affect data requests approved by the NSA's requests approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court or national security letters issued by the FBI -- both of which automatically carry gag orders.

However, for as many cases as possible, the companies believe users have a right to know in advance when their data is targeted by government agencies. But the Justice Department says the new policies will hamper investigations and even endanger lives: "These risks of endangering life, risking destruction of evidence, or allowing suspects to flee or intimidate witnesses are not merely hypothetical, but unfortunately routine," Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr told WaPo. "It's sort of a double whammy that makes law enforcement's job harder," said Jason M. Weinstein, former deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's criminal division. "It has the potential to significantly impair investigations."

Industry experts, however, believe the move will work to hamper the flood of data requests that has only increased in size and scope in recent years. "It serves to chill the unbridled, cost-free collection of data," said Albert Gidari Jr., a tech-industry representative, to WaPo. "And I think that's a good thing."

The shift in policy comes after several disclosures about the NSA's surveillance practices, sourced to leaks by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, caused upheaval in the technology industry. For example, a relatively recent report about the NSA "spoofing," or pretending to be, Facebook servers in order to upload surveillance malware onto targeted computers resulted in CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling President Obama personally to complain. Other revelations, like those that detailed the NSA's program to tap directly into unencrypted fiber optic lines that were part of the internal networks of Google and Yahoo in order to vacuum up user data, have caused companies to add security measures they might never had thought they needed -- at a cost to those companies.

While the White House has invited tech industry giants to discuss the NSA programs on two occasions, it appears that might not have been enough to assuage their concerns. So Silicon Valley is rebelling, one policy change at a time.