According to two industry sources, the U.S. government has demanded that major internet companies provide it the stored passwords of their customers.

According to two industry sources, the federal government has demanded that major internet companies provide it the stored passwords of their customers.

“I’ve certainly seen them ask for passwords,” said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We push back.” A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies “really heavily scrutinize” these requests, the person said. “There’s a lot of ‘over my dead body.'”

So far at least, it appears that the companies are doing the right thing and telling the government to go to hell.