Web snooping talks fail, say tech groups Attempts by Microsoft and Google to persuade the Obama administration to let them reveal more about the extent of internet surveillance by the US National Security Agency have failed, the top lawyer at Microsoft disclosed on Friday. The collapse of the negotiations marks a setback for some of the largest US internet companies as they seek to stem the damage caused by the revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's secret surveillance programmes. Questions about the extent of their complicity with US surveillance have triggered outrage around the world and raised the threat that individuals and companies in other countries will start to turn away from US internet services to protect their privacy. Both Google and Microsoft filed lawsuits two months ago seeking the power to say more about the surveillance requests they receive, in the hope that the information would calm some of the concern. Privacy advocates also argue that being forced to reveal the extent of the surveillance would embarrass the US administration and might act as a restraint on the practice. "With the failure of our recent negotiations, we will move forward with litigation in the hope that the courts will uphold our right to speak more freely," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, wrote in a blog post on Friday. In a statement, Google later said: "We believe there is still too much secrecy around these requests and that more openness is needed." The co-ordinated statements by Google and Microsoft mark a rare detente between the rival tech giants, who have often lobbied aggressively against each other in Washington in the past. However, the absence of Facebook, which has also been thrown into the spotlight by the NSA revelations, hinted at the deeper rifts that have opened up among the tech companies over the affair. Facebook, which was slower than Google in disclosing even basic data about government requests, sought to leapfrog the search giant two months ago with a promise to publish extra information. Microsoft, meanwhile, has struggled with efforts to reverse an impression that it acts less forcefully than Google and Twitter in defending its users against government intrusions. The Obama administration has promised to disclose how many national security requests it has made for personal data once a year. However, the internet companies have been pressing for the right to say more about the nature of the requests. "We believe we have a clear right under the US constitution to share more information with the public," Mr Smith wrote. The level of detail published by the internet companies should include whether the requests involved the actual content of emails rather than just the metadata showing information about the user account, he added.