14 DAY TRIAL // Tech companies may compete all day long with their various products, but they've proven time and time again that they can work together when it matters. This time, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and many others are asking lawmakers to reform the NSA surveillance laws.
Silicon Valley is asking lawmakers to reform Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, which is set to expire at the end of the year. This particular section has become quite famous over the years, particularly following the Snowden leaks when it became obvious that it was the legal basis for NSA programs that broadly collect electronic communications.
Theoretically, these programs are meant to target non-US citizens overseas, but it has been proven time and time again that the NSA has also collected data on Americans. This is also the same section that was used to authorized PRISM, a controversial program that was reported on right at the start of the Snowden leaks.
NSA itself admitted that it was collecting more data than it should. Last month, the agency said that it would halt collections under Section 702 that simply mention foreign intelligence targets since this is something they've been highly criticized about. However, that isn't enough as far as these tech companies believe.
Additional demands
Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google and many others request that lawmakers consider changes before allowing the reauthorization of Section 702. They want more transparency and oversight to begin with, and also wish that the NSA will narrow the amount of information it collects under such programs.
Another thing tech companies want is to be able to disclose more details about national security demands in their Transparency Reports. In the past few years, they won the right to express a number of demands they get in smaller numbers, but that is still not enough.
"Finally, there should be greater transparency around how the communications of U.S. persons that are incidentally collected under Section 702 are searched and used, including how often 702 databases are queried using identifiers that are tied to U.S. persons," the document reads.
The list of companies that signed the letter also includes Adobe, Airbnb, Automattic, Cisco, Cloudflare, Dropbox, Evernote, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Mozilla, Pinterest, Lyft, Reddit, Snap, Uber and Yahoo.