"This would allow the companies involved to make narrow claims about not turning over data directly to the government."<p>Well there you have it. Even claims such as "we don't have any backdoors", if found to be false, they could later say:<p>"Oh, we didn't think you meant it like <i>that</i> - but yes, we do provide the government with any information they want from our servers. Why do you ask?"<p>PR people are very good at spinning stuff like this, and so are the lawyers.