The NSA needs to be reined in and this reform is the first step towards achieving this goal that was set a year ago

Nov 18, 2014 14:43 GMT  ·  By

As the US Freedom Act comes into the center of attention once more, as the Senate prepares to vote on the important NSA reform bill, tech firms are coming together to support the changes.

Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple and other companies are part of the Reform Government Surveillance coalition, and they’re urging the US Senate to pass the USA Freedom Act and put a stop to mass data collection by intelligence agencies.

AOL, Dropbox, Evernote, LinkedIn and Twitter are also part of the coalition; they’re all companies that have spoken out against mass surveillance as it has been unveiled by documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower.

The USA Freedom Act, which might get voted on this week seeks to prevent the bulk collection of Internet metadata, calling for transparency about government demands for user information from tech companies. It also seeks for appropriate oversight and accountability mechanisms to be set in place, things that have been missing thus far.

“The Senate has an opportunity this week to vote on the bipartisan USA Freedom Act.  We urge you to pass the bill, ‪which both protects national security and reaffirms America’s commitment to the freedoms we all cherish,” the companies start off in the open letter they sent to the Senate.

The tech giants don’t just want their involvement to stop here. Following the passing of the USA Freedom Act, the company intends to continue working with Congress, the Administration, civil liberties groups and governments around the world to advance essential reforms.

Their wish-list includes preventing government access to data without proper legal process, assuring that providers are not required to locate infrastructure within a country’s border, promoting the free flow of data across borders and avoiding conflicts among nations by instilling the necessity of making lawful requests for data across jurisdictions.

White House agrees

The White House has also issued a statement saying that it strongly supports the USA Freedom Act.

It’s been many months since the NSA scandal broke out and since the White House promised reforms for the NSA, none that have happened so far. This has caused quite a bit of frustration among citizens from all over the world as nothing has changed following the leaks, outside the fact that we know they’re watching us all online, regardless if we’ve done something wrong or not.

Whether the Freedom Act will be voted upon and whether it will pass or not, it remains to be seen, but there’s plenty of pressure from the civil society and the tech industry for something to happen in this direction, despite protests from the intelligence community.

Tech giants push for US Freedom Act (5 Images)

Tech companies urge change
The tech giants are putting the pressure on the SenateThe NSA needs to be reformed
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