Top US tech companies call for surveillance reform
Eight major U.S. web companies made a joint call on Monday for tighter controls on how governments collect personal data, intensifying the furor over online surveillance.
In an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and Congress, the companies, including Apple, Facebook and Google, said recent revelations showed the balance had tipped too far in favor of the state in many countries and away from the individual.
In June,former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden exposed top secret government surveillance programs that tap into communications on cables linking technology companies’ various data centers overseas.
After Snowden’s disclosure, many of the big Internet companies warned that U.S. businesses may lose revenue abroad as wary customers switched to local alternatives.
This latest gesture comes as some of the very signatories to the letter are criticized over their data collection practices, which have led to increasing concerns over privacy. Google, for example, was fined in September for not complying with the French government’s request for specific information on the data it collects from users. The search giant has also faced challenges to its Street View mapping project, acknowledging in March that it had violated people’s privacy. Facebook, with its Graph search feature, has beencriticized for the way it mines user data. Apple too has been scrutinized.
Photo: PAWEL KOPCZYNSKI/Reuters