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Apple, Google, Facebook, other tech companies lobbying to stop NSA spying before new congress takes over in January

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Bloomberg reports that groups representing Apple, Google, Facebook and other high profile tech companies are lobbying to pass a new bill that attempts to limit NSA spying of email and communications of their users. The report says the groups are “pushing the Senate to pass legislation limiting National Security Agency spying before the Republican majority takes control of the chamber.” The news comes ahead of the Senate vote on the new bill scheduled for Nov. 18 and an upcoming Republican controlled Congress taking over in January:

If a final bill isn’t reached this year, the process for passing legislation would begin over in January under a new Congress controlled by Republicans, many of whom support government surveillance programs… Members of the Consumer Electronics Association “have already lost contracts with foreign governments worth millions of dollars,” in response to revelations about U.S. spying, Gary Shapiro, president and chief executive officer of the group that represents Apple, Google and Microsoft, wrote in a letter sent to all senators yesterday.

The new bill would reportedly help curb NSA data collection programs by requiring the agency obtain court orders for data requests to carriers and allowing companies to disclose more information on government requests they receive. “The bill also would require the government to narrow its surveillance, forbidding authorities from collecting all information about a particular service provider, or from collecting geographic data like a city, ZIP code or area code,” Bloomberg reports. 

Apple and many of the other tech groups opposed a previous bill passed in May due to an “unacceptable loophole” that it said “could enable the bulk collection of Internet users’ data.”

Here’s to hoping the new bill, if passed, extends to the recently discovered government program using planes equipped with devices posing as cellular towers to collect data from passengers. 

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Comments

  1. herb02135go - 9 years ago

    Congress is capitalized.
    Republican – controlled Congress, with a hyphen.

  2. Let me get this straight. A Democratic-controlled Senate for the past 6 years and Obama (a Democrat) having direct control of the NSA, and the panic is to stop /Republicans/ before it’s too late?? Wow. Why won’t they hold Obama responsible for um, let’s see, the EXECUTIVE BRANCH of the U.S. Government which controls the NSA? Earth to Silicon Valley: the US Congress does not implement policy at NSA. The White House does.

    • Even as a Democrat, I agree: Obama’s (and George Bush’s) support of the NSA is down-right insane. Both of them need(ed) to be impeached over this issue alone, since it violates the fourth amendment.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      What would you have Obama do? Department of Homeland Security was established by congress, so Obama MUST accept it. NSA spying? Well we don’t really know WTF goes on at the moment, but it was entirely set up under Bush with the full throated support of the GOP. The NSA was established and funded by congress, so it will take an act of congress to change or abolish it.

      Plenty of democrats went along with these spying measures, but there is no question that they are creations of GOP rule. The republican bed-wetters live in perpetual state of heightened paranoia so all it takes is some barbarian with a beard to proclaim “Death to America” and they are panting to shred the bill of rights. Trusting these pantywaists to reign in the NSA is delusional!

      Of course all that is water under the bridge. Domestic spying will end when American voters stop responding to fear-mongering and not one second sooner. For now it is political suicide for any politician to attempt dismantling of the vaterland, er, homeland security apparatus. The voters would turn on him, and God only knows what would happen to him if there were a terrorist attack after he successfully reigned in the NSA. Makes no matter if there is a causal relationship, the voters will freak.

      • giskardian - 9 years ago

        Edit: wasn’t very clear, but NSA spying wasn’t set up under Bush. What Bush did was set up full-on domestic NSA spying. It was under Bush that the NSA tapped into the Internet mainlines to collect EVERYTHING. Total Information Awareness – the work of Admiral Poindexter.

  3. Avenged110 - 9 years ago

    Ha you’d have better chances waiting for the new congress to take over

  4. Gregory Wright - 9 years ago

    This bill is going nowhere. This is all lip service. The squeaky well getting greased. Apple, Google, Facebook, etc., they are make believing they are doing something to appease their ‘complaining customer’ base. There are enough in congress to shut this effort down. Why? Because they know there continue to be a threat to America. A safe America overrides the concerns of data collection. Data that sits dormant in computers subject to use only when it is necessary to find those who are a threat to America. Nope this proposed bill is DOA as it should be.

    • Gregory Wright - 9 years ago

      I meant wheel.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      Mass domestic spying doesn’t protect us from teh terrorists dude.

      ” Data that sits dormant in computers subject to use only when it is necessary to find those who are a threat to America.”

      And what happens if a regime is voted into power which decides to use that “dormant” data for political advantage? That is far too much power to let reside in the executive branch. It might be ok for 20 years, even 50 years, but someday an executive will rise to power and exploit that “dormant” data. Count on it.

  5. TechPeeve (@TechPeeve) - 9 years ago

    These companies are fighting for the right to privatize spying on the public.

  6. Google and FaceBook, hah, right :D Like they didn’t do enough spying already, especially Google who sells all of your information to everyone they want to. The only one of those 3 named I trust is Apple.

  7. Regardless of your political views, the premise of this article is dumbfounding verging on moronic.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.