14 DAY TRIAL // Eight tech giants have taken a step today towards pushing the governments of the world to reform their mass surveillance practices, to add more transparency to the way they collect data and more oversight of the intelligence agencies.
Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Aol, LinkedIn and Yahoo have all signed an open letter addressed to the US president and created a site that enlists all the changes they hope to happen in the coming months.
While neither of these tech giants has joined prominent anti-mass surveillance coalitions such as StopWatching.Us, they have taken individual measures to increase security and protect their users’ privacy.
“I'm excited to see tech companies taking a standing and pushing for reform - it's direly needed. While many hundreds of advocacy organizations have been involved in the Stop Watching Us movement, we've been eager to see private companies step into the fray as well, and this a great step forward for them,” Sina Khanifar, CTO of StopWatching.Us said for Softpedia.
“With the number of lobbyists the 8 companies have between them, I have no doubt they'll be able to make an impact in shaping legislation in Washington. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the coming months,” he continued.
“Google, Facebook, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have their own agendas and policies when it comes to user privacy. At the end of the day, I hope that these companies are looking to turn over a new leaf when it comes to protecting their users’ private information,” said Brent Bucci, vice president of MediaFire, one of the big companies that are part of the StopWatching.Us coalition.
He does believe that any efforts to encourage sensible privacy policies should be encouraged.
On the other hand, even the new stance presented by these tech giants might not be enough to make a change. “I believe that the biggest challenge that we currently face is a lack of widespread consumer education when it comes to technology and user privacy issues. Getting the public involved is just the first step: we need more people to get their representatives and public officials involved,” the MediaFire VP told Softpedia.
Regardless, today marks an important day for the fight for more online privacy after the NSA revelations over the past six months have shattered everything people believed or at least hoped to be true regarding online activities.