Firms call
for 'substantial enhancements to privacy protections' and 'appropriate
oversight' in letter to Senate committee
theguardian.com,
Dominic Rushe in New York, Thursday 31 October 2013
 |
| The letter applauds the proposed legislation from Patrick Leahy and Jim Sensenbrenner. Photograph: Julian Stratenschulte/EPA |
Tech giants
including Apple, Facebook and Google called for substantial reforms to the US
government's surveillance programmes Thursday in a letter to the Senate
judiciary committee.
In the wake
of more revelations about the lengths to which the National Security Agency has
gone to intercept data, the companies have called for more transparency and
"substantial enhancements to privacy protections and appropriate oversight
and accountability mechanisms for those programs."
The letter,
also signed by AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo, follows the release of more documents
obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that reveal the US authorities
were secretly tapping in to the tech firm's main communications links.
The letter
"applauds" the USA Freedom Act, a bill sponsored by Democrat senator Patrick Leahy and Republican congressman James Sensenbrenner that would end the
bulk collection of data from millions of Americans and set up a privacy
advocate to monitor the Fisa court, which oversees the NSA's US activities.
"Recent
disclosures regarding surveillance activity raise important concerns in the
United States and abroad. The volume and complexity of the information that has
been disclosed in recent months has created significant confusion here and
around the world, making it more difficult to identify appropriate policy
prescriptions," the letter states.
"Our
companies have consistently made clear that we only respond to legal demands
for customer and user information that are targeted and specific.
"Allowing
companies to be transparent about the number and nature of requests will help
the public better understand the facts about the government's authority to
compel technology companies to disclose user data and how technology companies
respond to the targeted legal demands we receive," they write.
In a recent
report the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) said the US
tech firms could end up losing out on tens of billions of dollars in the
cloud-based computing space in the wake of Snowden's revelations. Cloud
computing is a rapidly growing area and revelations that the US authorities
have been scooping up the personal data of millions of users, particularly
outside the US, could cost them business.
"On the
low end, US cloud computing providers might lose $21.5bn over the next three
years," ITIF concluded. On the high end the report put the figure at
$35bn.
"We
urge the administration to work with Congress in addressing these critical
reforms that would provide much needed transparency and help rebuild the trust
of Internet users around the world," the letter said.
 |
Google said in a statement: 'We have long been concerned about
the possibility of this kind of snooping.' Photograph: Walter Bieri/AP
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