Apple joins other IT giants in NSA reform calls

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has joined Microsoft, Twitter, Google, Yahoo !, Facebook and other IT industry giants in its calls for reform of the NSA programs. As everyone knows, at the beginning of this year it turned out that the National Security Agency used the information of IT companies to monitor citizens throughout the country without the approval of a prosecutor.

Companies that were allegedly involved in the PRISM program refused to transfer any user data to the state, but the leaked slides of the NSA presentation seem to indicate otherwise.

The new joint campaign, called “Reform of the State Monitoring System,” contains five driving principles that seek to curb excessive government espionage:

• Limitation of government authority to collect user information. The government should limit its ability to force providers to disclose user data. In addition, the government should limit the monitoring of well-known users, and limit the ability to mass-collect data from Internet communications.
• Oversight and accountability. Intelligence services that collect data should carry out this process in accordance with a clear legal framework in which their powers are subordinated to deterring and balancing forces.
• Transparency of government. Transparency of the activities of the oversight organization and all programs that are managed under its authority.
  
• Providing a free flow of information. The possibility of free access to information outside the country is a necessity for the development of the global economy of the 21st century. The government should not impede the access of companies or individuals to obtaining legitimate information that is stored outside the country. The government should not require providers to deploy their infrastructure within the country.
• Avoidance of intergovernmental conflicts. In order to avoid contradictions, laws should be as transparent as possible. When the laws of one jurisdiction conflict with another, the duty of the government is to resolve the conflict through joint efforts.
  

An open letter was also drawn up to government officials in which they were accused of exceeding their authority and violating the rights of companies and ordinary citizens. And finally, the letter contains a petition that the United States guarantees to limit such observations to the law and place them under strict supervision.

Text of the letter

Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress,

We understand that the government has a duty to protect its citizens.
But this summer showed the need to reform the state monitoring system throughout the world. In many countries, this balance is broken and unfortunately not in favor of ordinary citizens. This undermines the freedom that we all treasure. It is time to change.

For our part, we are focused on the preservation and security of user data, namely the deployment of the latest encryption technology, to prevent unauthorized surveillance of our networks, until we make sure that the government’s actions are legitimate and justified.

We urge the United States to take the lead and pursue reforms that ensure that government oversight efforts are clearly limited by law. To see the full set of principles that we support, visit ReformGovernmentSurveillance.com

Regards,

AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo

Whether the US government will react to this action, one can only guess.

Other sources:
reuters
blogs.wsj.com