It’s all about trust and this is getting eroded following the spate of events surrounding theU.S.government’s online surveillance. A Reuters report said the recent revelations are affecting people’s trust in Internet companies including the Facebook users.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said more transparency and communication on the part of the government can help assuage the public’s concerns over the requests for data. This he stated at The Atlantic magazine’s event held inWashingtonrecently.

The goings-on are hurting the users’ trust in Internet companies prompting Facebook to take a similar action as Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Yahoo! Inc. These companies have requested that they be allowed to disclose aggregate data pertaining to the orders they received by virtue of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to provide information. They brought this matter to the attention of theU.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Following the statements made by Edward Snowden, former spy contractor, regarding the secret surveillance activities conducted by theU.S.government with the participation of Internet companies, these firms have sought for added disclosures surrounding requests for data to clear up issues on their involvement and assure the public of their privacy.

Zuckerberg said it would help to let the people in on these programs and respond to or address the public outcry accordingly. News broke out that the National Security Agency (NSA) has secret spy programs and theU.S.response pointed to non-U.S. citizens as the target of these initiatives.

He underlined the fact that the Internet is a global platform and the service they provide is open to the international market. Facebook users across the globe have reached around 1.1 billion each month, the social media company has said early this year.

More than the criticisms lodged on Facebook’s privacy policies, the issues surrounding the online surveillance have been greatly felt by the users and affected their trust on Facebook, Zuckerberg noted. The surveillance program is called Prism which covers users of nine biggest Internet companies.

Under this program, the NSA can target the communications of foreigners even without a warrant. Internet companies have said that the NSA does not have direct access to their servers and to the personal information of users.

See the full Reuters report here.