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Apple joins tech titans in calling for government spying reform and limitations

PRISM-slide

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has joined Microsoft, Twitter, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, and other giants in the tech industry in calling for a reform of the NSA’s surveillance tactics. Earlier this year it was revealed that the National Security Agency was using information from these companies and more to monitor citizens across the nation without warrants.

The companies allegedly involved in the “PRISM” program denied turning over any user data to the government, but a leaked NSA slidedeck (seen above) seemed to imply the opposite.

The new collaborative campaign, called Reform Government Surveillance, cites five driving principles in its drive to curb excessive government spying:

  1. Limiting Governments’ Authority to Collect Users’ InformationGovernments should codify sensible limitations on their ability to compel service providers to disclose user data that balance their need for the data in limited circumstances, users’ reasonable privacy interests, and the impact on trust in the Internet. In addition, governments should limit surveillance to specific, known users for lawful purposes, and should not undertake bulk data collection of Internet communications.
  2. Oversight and Accountability
    Intelligence agencies seeking to collect or compel the production of information should do so under a clear legal framework in which executive powers are subject to strong checks and balances. Reviewing courts should be independent and include an adversarial process, and governments should allow important rulings of law to be made public in a timely manner so that the courts are accountable to an informed citizenry.
  3. Transparency About Government Demands
    Transparency is essential to a debate over governments’ surveillance powers and the scope of programs that are administered under those powers. Governments should allow companies to publish the number and nature of government demands for user information. In addition, governments should also promptly disclose this data publicly.
  4. Respecting the Free Flow of Information
    The ability of data to flow or be accessed across borders is essential to a robust 21st century global economy. Governments should permit the transfer of data and should not inhibit access by companies or individuals to lawfully available information that is stored outside of the country. Governments should not require service providers to locate infrastructure within a country’s borders or operate locally.
  5. Avoiding Conflicts Among GovernmentsIn order to avoid conflicting laws, there should be a robust, principled, and transparent framework to govern lawful requests for data across jurisdictions, such as improved mutual legal assistance treaty — or “MLAT” — processes. Where the laws of one jurisdiction conflict with the laws of another, it is incumbent upon governments to work together to resolve the conflict.

The group’s site also includes an open letter to government officials, which chides the government for overstepping its constitutional limitations and violating the rights of the companies’ users. The letter points out that the group complies with all legal requests for information that are “reasonable in scope,” and has historically “pushed back” against unreasonable requests.

Finally, the letter requests that the United States ensure that future surveillance be confined by law and placed under the oversight of independent parties.

Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress,

We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide. The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It’s time for a change.

For our part, we are focused on keeping user’s data secure — deploying the latest encryption technology to prevent unauthorized surveillance on our networks and by pushing back on government requests to ensure that they are legal and reasonable in scope.

We urge the US to take the lead and make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight. To see the full set of principles we support, visit ReformGovernmentSurveillance.com

Sincerely,

AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo

Whether the U.S. government will take the group’s concerns to heart and take meaningful steps to reform its spying tactics is anyone’s guess, but it seems that for the first time a concerted effort is being made by the tech industry to let the government know exactly where they stand on the issue of surveillance.

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Comments

  1. noelboss - 10 years ago

    So NSA already took down the website? http://reformgovernmentsurveillance.com

  2. varera (@real_varera) - 10 years ago

    about time

  3. Winski - 10 years ago

    This initiative is likely to makes things WORSE !!!

    One of the two or three hundred spy agencies over the last week launched NEW surveillance satellites with their log of a huge Octopus swallowing an earth globe with the logo ‘Nothing Escapes US”. painted on the side of the satellites launch shell !! (the enclosure that covers the satellites at the top of the rocket as they are launched for protection and missile stability)

    The stated intent of these satellites is to collect MORE information on US citizens than the agencies do now!!! So these ‘tech titans’ accomplished what??

  4. Stephu (@Stephu_CH) - 10 years ago

    I think this is a good start. But Apple should take this to hart themselves inhouse. For example they should bring back SyncServices in one or another form. They removed them from Mavericks and therefore the possibility to locally sync Addresses, Calendars, Bookmarks, etc. between your Mac and your iDevices.
    The official way is to use iCloud for those personal data and then have one’s devices automatically synced. Alternatives are using other cloud services (not better protected from spy agencies) or setting up a local CalDAV/CardDAV server. I did the latter, but I think this is too complicated for many normal users.

    Data which is not required on an internet server by the user should not need to be there. Then Apple does not have to protect them from secret services, hackers or errors in software and business processes.