Eight of the US’ biggest tech companies have reportedly called on President Barack Obama and Congress to impose new curbs on web surveillance following revelations about the country’s spy agency allegedly collected user data of million of customers.
Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, AOL and Twitter, in their open letter to the US administration, have also offered a plan of their own to address the web surveillance that has gone ‘too far’.
According to Fox News, the tech giants have asked for an end to mass collection of user information, including e-mail, address books, and video chats apart from reviewing of surveillance requests by an independent court with an adversarial legal process.
The companies have also asked for allowing them public disclosure of government demands for user information and an international framework to govern lawful data requests across national boundaries.
After NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the trove of highly classified data about the US’ mass surveillance programmes, tech companies have come in the ambit of the controversy for having furnished user data without prior approval.
The tech companies have pointed in their letter that they are focusing on keeping their users’ data secure by deploying the latest encryption technology to prevent unauthorized surveillance on their networks and by pushing back on government requests to ensure that they are legal and reasonable in scope.
Meanwhile, the NSA has been defending all its programmes for being ‘legal’, arguing that its efforts were concentrated on gathering intelligence against legitimate foreign targets in the war on terror, and not to target innocent individuals, the report added. (ANI)