“A letter from eight prominent online companies to President Obama and Congress calls for reform of government surveillance programs, outlining concerns about the way the National Security Agency monitors online and telephone communications.
The companies - AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo - sent the letter this week, urging the federal government to institute reforms that ensure government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight.
"The tech giants' message couldn't be any clearer or more welcome - the government's massive spying authorities must be reined in immediately," says Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office. "Widespread support for reform will only continue to grow until Congress and the administration deal with out-of-control spying head on by prohibiting indiscriminate surveillance."
Fueling concerns about NSA activities are what seem to be never-ending leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Among the latest was a Dec. 4 Washington Post report that the agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, which allows it to track the movements of individuals - and map their relationships - in ways that would have been previously unimaginable.”
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