The three join Apple, Yahoo, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn and Yahoo to ask for reforms

Dec 9, 2013 09:13 GMT  ·  By

Enough is enough, tech companies have decided. Enough with the spying, the lack of privacy and mass surveillance for no real reason. Eight tech giants have apparently been working on something big behind closed doors and now it’s finally out in the open – a formal request to reform government surveillance.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn and Yahoo have published an open letter in a series of national newspapers and launched a website demanding that the governments of the world abide by global norms of free expression and privacy.

That means that government law enforcement and intelligence efforts get new rules that are “narrowly tailored, transparent and subject to oversight.”

“We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer's revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide,” the letter reads.

The message sent out by the eight companies also mentions that, in many countries, the balance has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual, rights that are marked down in Constitutions. “This undermines the freedoms we all cherish,” they say.

“The security of users’ data is critical, which is why we’ve invested so much in encryption and fight for transparency around government requests for information. This is undermined by the apparent wholesale collection of data, in secret and without independent oversight, by many governments around the world. It’s time for reform and we urge the US government to lead the way,” Google’s CEO Larry Page said.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg notes that the reports over the past six months have shown that there is a real need for greater disclosure and new limits on how governments collect information. “The US government should take this opportunity to lead this reform effort and make things right.”