Ever since leaked NSA documents first started popping up this summer, the battle against NSA surveillance has proceeded on multiple fronts: legislators pushing for new laws, journalists pushing for new stories, and tech companies fighting to regain users’ trust. Since July, tech companies had been putting pressure on the Department of Justice, fighting for the right to say more about their interactions with law enforcement. The deal was understood to resolve the question of transparency From the outside, it looked like a simple response to the presidents recent NSA order, but according to the Wall Street Journals reporting, it was the result of intricate backroom negotiations between tech companies and the administration, the end of a conversation thats been going on for months.