Dan Roberts and Jemima Kiss report:
The world’s leading technology companies have united to demand sweeping changes to US surveillance laws, urging an international ban on bulk collection of data to help preserve the public’s “trust in the internet”.
In their most concerted response yet to disclosures by the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Twitter and AOL will publish an open letter to Barack Obama and Congress on Monday, throwing their weight behind radical reforms already proposed by Washington politicians.
Read more on The Guardian.
Dear Internet companies,
As your President I was surprised to hear of your sudden interest in protecting the privacy of the millions of internet users whose trust you seek to regain. I agree that widespread surveillance has reached the point that the government has become addicted to the massive flow of big data about our citizens. You’re in the position of a crack dealer arguing for tougher robbery laws because addicts are stealing your product from you. We, the government, are the addicts who depend on bigger and bigger flows of data about our citizens and get the shakes just thinking about a reduction.
What you don’t seem to understand is that it is your companies that led us into this situation and it is you who must lead us out of it.
We are only consumers of the crack you are pushing. You are the ones who make millions by producing dossiers that would make the Stasi envious. We have abdicated our duty to fight against such unfair business practices to the point that the courts are convinced that the only privacy worth protecting is that whose loss results in a provable economic loss.
Tell you what. If you’re really concerned about the privacy of the internet users and not just angry about giving away your surveillance results, you can start by:
1. Not stalking consumers online from site to site without their informed prior consent.
2. Not creating business records which have no function but to reduce privacy. Like telephone metadata after the connections have been made and the charges have been computed.
3. Supporting real privacy protecting laws which require the prior consent of the consumer before data linked to a person is made available to a larger group. I’m talking to you Mr. “It’s only for Harvard students.” Facebook.
Signed:
The President you thought you elected (Not the one you’ve got)
Bravo!