Kashmir Hill reported here at
the end of October, to taking their case to President
Obama and members of Congress directly in anopen letter published
today. At risk is the public’s trust in the internet itself and all of the
economic and cultural benefits it contains.
The letter, signed by AOL,
Apple, Facebook, Google,
LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo, urges the U.S. 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.” Microsoft’s general counsel, Brad Smith, released a
statement asserting that, “People won’t use technology they don’t trust.
Governments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore
it.”
This is a striking development
given the varying degree to which these same companies have cooperated and/or
collaborated with the NSA’s data
collection efforts. Clearly the balance has tipped and America’s tech
companies now feel emboldened to call for sweeping reforms even as the
Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein of
California, is sponsoring a bill maintain the security agencies’ right to
continue to collect bulk data.
The Big-8, with a combined
valuation of $1.4 trillion, are trying to convince their billions of users
worldwide that they can still trust American tech companies. “For our part,”
the open letter reads, “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.”
Google, Twitter, Yahoo and
Microsoft have all beefed up their internal encryption systems. ”The security
of users’ data is critical,” says Google CEO Larry Page, “which is why we’ve
invested so much in encryption and fight for transparency around government
requests for information.”
This may all sound political,
but as with most things coming out of Silicon Valley (and Redmond), it is
primarily economically motivated. America’s leadership role in consumer-facing
internet technology is clearly at risk, as are the benefits of true global
connectivity for businesses and individuals. As governments around the world
have expressed their displeasure with the Snowden revelations, a thicket of
international regulation threatens to choke the global growth of the Internet
giants. The Guardian explains that “The eight technology companies also hint at
new fears, particularly that competing national responses to the Snowden
revelations will not only damage their commercial interests but also lead to a balkanization of the web as
governments try to prevent internet companies from escaping overseas.”
The Guardian’s role,
particularly, in providing journalistic support for Snowden’s leaked material
(more of which is still to come) has made it hard for American tech companies
to deny the extent to which their own infrastructure has been compromised and
repurposed for the cause of state surveillance. These companies have a mixed
track record in terms of their relationship with the NSA, but most have
expressed outright anger (and in some case expletives!) as these revelations
have rolled out about the degree of their infiltration.
How
will Obama and Congress respond? That depends on how the story
plays in D.C. The real story here is that the security risk of terrorism to
America is considerably less than the economic risk of losing the global
primacy of our tech companies. But to really make that case, the tech companies
will have to admit that they have not yet created the kind of broad-based
economic benefits that would justify such special status. Government
surveillance is not the only reason that the populace might be mistrustful of
the internet. Much of the blame should go to the tech companies themselves who
have centralized the collection of data within their servers—for arcane
commercial purposes—where it could be bulk collected by the NSA in the first
place.
Did you
know…?
America’s biggest tech
companies have gone from begging congress for surveillance reform.
