Tech Companies Outline More NSA Reform Demands

Tech Companies Outline More NSA Reform Demands

Dec 9th 2013, 07:28, by Gregory Ferenstein

Before Congress’s holiday recess, Silicon Valley’s major tech companies have renewed calls for surveillance reform. Executives from Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Linkedin, Twitter, and (TechCrunch parent company) Aol have put their weight behind Reform Government Surveillance, publishing an open collective letter to Congress and President Obama.
Since whistleblower Edward Snowden first revealed the National Security Agency’s vast telephone and Internet dragnet, the tech companies have become increasingly vocal about reform. This is not the first time that tech companies/competitors have come together behind this cause.
In the letter, the tech companies have outlined five new reforms that they would like to see:

1. Limit surveillance to targeted threats, rather than bulk collection
2. Provide greater oversight for surveillance
3. More transparency about how many users are being surveilled
4. Allow the “free flow of information” by not requiring “service providers to locate infrastructure within a country’s borders or operate locally.”
5. Establish standard of rules across all governments

The first three of these have already been proposed by a few groups in Congress and more reforms could be added as Congress reconvenes next year.