Google charges $25 a person for exposing its users information to the government

According to the four years spending of US Drug Enforcement Admission on wiretaps and pen registers provided on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Microsoft does not charges any commission for government surveillance of its users, whereas Google charges $25 per user. A wiretap grabs actual telephone or Internet conversations while a pen register merely grabs numbers and addresses that show who's doing the communicating.

According to the DEA document in 2010 it paid ISPs, telcos and other communication provider $6.7 million for pen registers and $6.5 million for wiretaps. While pen register payments increased more than three times over the past three years and doubled over the past two wiretap payments remained almost unchanged.

Microsoft does not charge for surveillance the documents show. "There are no current costs for information requested with subpoenas, search warrants, pen registers, or Title II collection [wiretaps] for Microsoft Corporation," they say. But they show that Google charges $25 and Yahoo! $29.

As Soghoain points out, Google and Yahoo! may make more money from surveillance than they get directly from their email users. Basic Google and Yahoo! email accounts are free. Department of Justice documents (PDF) show that telcos may charge as much as $2,000 for a pen register.