“President Barack Obama hosted Apple CEO Tim Cook, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Google computer scientist Vint Cerf and other tech executives and civil liberties leaders on Thursday for a closed-door meeting about government surveillance,” Tony Romm reports for Politico. “The session, which Obama attended himself, followed a similar gathering earlier this week between top administration officials, tech-industry lobbyists and leading privacy hawks, the sources said,” Romm reports. “Those earlier, off-the-record discussions centered on the controversy surrounding the NSA as well as commercial privacy issues such as online tracking of consumers.”
Romm reports, “Obama has promised more public debate about the country’s counterterrorism policies and privacy safeguards amid a deluge of criticism about the NSA’s controversial surveillance programs. As the steady stream of revelations continues, however, the White House has chosen to meet quietly with tech executives and consumer groups behind closed doors.”
“The administration’s outreach began Tuesday, when chief of staff Denis McDonough and general counsel Kathy Ruemmler convened a privacy-focused huddle in the Roosevelt Room. Joining them were representatives from the Information Technology Industry Council, TechNet and TechAmerica, which together represent a diverse swath of the tech industry — from major defense contractors to companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center were also present, sources said,” Romm reports. “The second meeting Thursday, however, was organized with greater secrecy. Those invited were mostly senior executives, including Cook, Stephenson and Cerf, as well as representatives of groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and Gigi Sohn, the leader of Public Knowledge, according to three sources familiar with the meeting.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Either the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution exists or it doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways.
United States Constitution, Amendment IV:
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
Join The Electronic Frontier Foundation in pushing for a full congressional investigation here.
Related articles:
NSA can read email, online chats, track Web browsing without warrant, documents leaked by Edward Snowden show – July 31, 2013
Momentum builds against U.S. government surveillance – July 29, 2013
U.S. House rejects effort to curb NSA surveillance powers, 205-217 – July 24, 2013
Obama administration scrambles to shut down imminent U.S. House vote to defund NSA spying – July 24, 2013
Obama administration demands master encryption keys from firms in order to conduct electronic surveillance against Internet users – July 24, 2013
Apple, Google, dozens of others push Obama administration to disclose U.S. surveillance requests – July 19, 2013
Secret court agrees to allow Yahoo to reveal its fight against U.S. government PRISM requests – July 16, 2013
How Microsoft handed U.S. NSA, FBI, CIA access to users’ encrypted video, audio, and text communications – July 11, 2013
DuckDuckGo search engine surges 33% in wake of PRISM scandal – June 20, 2013
Yahoo: Since December 2012, we have received up to 13,000 U.S. gov’t requests for customer data – June 18, 2013
Apple: Since December 2012, we have received U.S. gov’t requests for customer data for up to 10,000 accounts – June 17, 2013
Nine companies, including Apple, tied to PRISM, Obama to be smacked with class-action lawsuit – June 12, 2013
U.S. lawmakers urge review of ‘Prism’ domestic spying, Patriot Act – June 10, 2013
PRISM: Do Apple, Google, Facebook have an ethical obligation not to spy on users? – June 8, 2013
Plausible deniability: The strange and unbelievable similarities in the Apple, Google, and Facebook PRISM denials – June 7, 2013
Google’s Larry Page on government eavesdropping: ‘We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday’ – June 7, 2013
Seecrypt app lets iPhone, Android users keep voice calls, text messages away from carriers, government eyes and ears – June 7, 2013
Obama administration defends PRISM data-collection as legal anti-terrorism tool – June 7, 2013
Facebook, Google, Yahoo join Apple in sort-of denying PRISM involvement – June 7, 2013
Report: Intelligence program gives U.S. government direct access to customer data on Apple servers; Apple denies – June 6, 2013
Why are there any discussions??? Give us back our privacy. Period. No discussions needed!
You have to fight for your right to party…
Is that under the “pursuit of happiness” clause?
If you don’t do it nobody else will
Fight for your right to party? Wow. Now that is important above all else.
Allegory, D, that’s figurative…
Crazy times. When did we ever have anyone or any group breaking the law and the victims are asked to wait and see if our rights will be upheld or defended in “more public debate” while the crime continues by those responsible for upholding the basic laws of the land using the victim’s money to violate the victims.
You do realize that CALEA was passed in ’94 under Clinton and expanded by Bush to include the web, especially VOIP systems? So it has been the law for essentially two decades. That doesn’t make it right, but it isn’t as simple a “group breaking the law.”
Gotta love people who bitch about privacy issues but yet excitedly share their entire lives via the Internet.
With a few clicks and a little help from Google I can find anyones name, email and address on this site unless you’ve always used a VPN.
Like you said… can’t have it both ways.
You’re not doing too well today Jay Jay. No you can’t find my email address. Sharing my real name is deliberate. NOT sharing my real birth date is deliberate, although I happily share my birth year.
YES, you can have it both ways. I write about computer security. You can find the link to my Mac-Security blog if merely click my avatar, again deliberate. I control exactly what I want to share on the Internet. So cut the crap please.
You may not be as anonymous as you think; take a look at “A Primer on Information Theory and Privacy.” Most people don’t realize how easy it is to put together a very small number (3≤n≤10) of online pieces of information to uniquely identify a person.
Uniquely identifying people is an entirely different question. That is the point of ‘ever cookies’ and other computer and computer behavior data gathering. It’s a strategy by questionable marketing people whereby they can ‘know’ who you are, without even knowing your name, so they can gather marketing research data about ‘you’ and serve ‘you’ targeted advertising.
That certainly is one method of stealing someone’s privacy. But having enough data to actually NAME you and know your email address, birthday, home address, Apple account ID and password, etc., is an extremely different issue. Any one on the planet can find out what Anthony Weiner’s weeny looks like! That is idiotic sharing of data. And yes, there’s plenty of idiotic sharing of data. That is a person’s choice. Irresponsible people are indeed the norm amidst our human society. And yes, we all get burned for our foolish choices.
Jay Jay, I don’t believe that everyone is trying to have it both ways…
They are wanting the DECISION of sharing that info or not, back in their hands.
Jay Jay, just STFU.
hugs & kisses,
Bot Bot
This whole NSA thing is blowing up in the faces of the people behind it, including politicians on both sides of the Atlantic.
It’s got way past the point where they can keep the cork in the bottle and the more they try to hold the cork down, the messier it’s going to get when it finally blows.
Today’s story about Ladar Levison feeling that shutting down his secure Lavabit e-mail service, rather than allow it to be compromised shines the spotlight right back onto the secret services.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/08/lavabit-email-shut-down-edward-snowden
That was an extremely disturbing article but it needs to be seen by everyone. Thanks for sharing.
I’m not sure how widely this particular aspect of the story is being reported in America, but it would appear that the US authorities are able to exploit a loophole which allows them to search and examine the electronic activity of any law abiding American citizens without a warrant.
From the article … “The authority, approved in 2011, appears to contrast with repeated assurances from Barack Obama and senior intelligence officials to both Congress and the American public that the privacy of US citizens is protected from the NSA’s dragnet surveillance programs.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/nsa-loophole-warrantless-searches-email-calls
Didn’t you know, the secret constitution doesn’t have the 4th amendment. This was all clearly decided by the secret supreme court. Pay attention.
hmmmm……..”the administrations outreach ….” ?
so far it seems to be more along the lines of “administration overreach”
so what do we actually have here ?
obama paying lip-service to privacy concerns ? or obama telling them to get in line with the program or face the consequences of investigations and other forms of intimidation if they don’t.
i think it is time for all tech and communications companies to join ranks with the citizens of this nation and just say “NO”!
we are no longer going to cooperate with the federal government’s wholesale domestic spying operation, and whats more we are going public with everything you have tried to and / or succeeded in strong-arming us into thus far.
under the last two administrations our government have put in place programs and capabilities that hitler and stalin could only dream of.
and while obama may not actually represent the threat to our personal privacy of communication that many suspect him of – once you have these programs in place, eventually somebody with dark intent will have everything at hand to plunge us into a new dark age.
i fear we are at a real turning point in our democracy and it is increasingly looking like we are turning onto a dead end.
EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, should have been there. Not invited.
We now know that Obama is blatantly LYING in public about the blanket surveillance of US citizens on US soil. That’s criminal.
Then there’s this smoking gun from June:
Justice Department Fights Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding Unconstitutional Surveillance Government lawyers are trying to keep buried a classified court finding that a domestic spying program went too far.
IASSOTS
“MacDailyNews Take: Either the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution exists or it doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways.”
Oh yes you can. Just ask the republicans. These laws were in acted under Bush as well as amended under Bush with not a whimper; at least not from republicans.
Now republicans are all up in arms on how Obama is somehow breaking laws. What’s fine for the white guy is law breaking for the black guy.
Neither party can claim the other did it. I think both parties have happily been complicit in the enacting and expanding of this inexcusable and terrible breach of individual freedoms and rights. It couldn’t have happened without both sides playing ball.
There are no laws that have been broken. This was not an issue under Bush. Only now is it an issue because republicans have nothing else to use against Obama and for the media, it’s a great way to sell more newspapers and advertisements. The media is taking a page from the republican’s play book, fear.
Of course, the media would sell more newspapers and advertisements if only something were to happen due to weakening of current surveillance laws. Meanwhile, the republicans are just loving it.
Back then the republicans said if you are not doing something wrong, then you have nothing to fear. Today they cry lost freedoms.
Like I said, what is just, legal and protecting this nation for a white guy becomes unjust, illegal and taking away our freedoms when it’s a black man.
It’s not that republicans have a short memory, rather they have no ethics, morals, only lust for power at any cost.
Basing a response with “There are no laws that have been broken.” when you are speaking of the very people who make the laws is ridiculous. If you created law, would you create one that places yourself in violation? However, I’m pretty sure that many of the laws the surveillance and information gathering is taking place under would not stand against the 4th amendment if brought under scrutiny under an open Supreme Court hearing.
Then to back it up with “This was not an issue under Bush.” when it was decided via a secret closed court is equally ridiculous. Of course it wasn’t an issue… No one knew about it!
While I’m no lover of the way the media handles things, to place them as the bad guy in this by saying the only reason this is an issue is for them to sell more media… I don’t really have words to express how wrongheaded that is. This is very much about mine and everyone else’s 4th amendment rights, nothing to do with the media. Thats the 1st amendment.
Black and white issues being dragged into this??? What? Are you serious? This is about everyone’s privacy. Next.
Again… My argument was based on that all of this required both Republican and Democratic support. Both are to blame, and that has nothing to do with having “a short memory”. I thought the laws were bad when they were enacted under Clinton, expanded under Bush, and further expanded and finally brought into the public eye under Obama.
“Obama has promised more public debate..”. in closed door meeting.
Really?
“Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism…yet we’ve been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it.”
Edward Snowden
For all of you that blame the NSA mess on Bush, read this:
“But he warned that Congress’ 2008 reform of the FISA system expanded the government’s authority by forcing the court to approve entire surveillance systems, not just surveillance warrants, as it previously handled.”
Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. But, weren’t the democrats the majority in both houses in congress at that time?
http://news.yahoo.com/former-judge-admits-flaws-secret-court-145541583.html
Yes this is all new. Obama allowed this. No republican supports it, only democrats. All the members of congress that are up in arms are republicans. All democrats are for spying. right? This is correct if I read all you experts correctly. Republicans to a man are for privacy, voting rights, and religious freedom. The democrats are all commies and want this country to fail. There, that sums up the view of posters here.
“There, that sums up the view of posters here.”
No it doesn’t, not one little bit.
While some people will always try to reduce everything to political point scoring and go with their knee jerk reactions, there are also plenty of people who step back and look at the bigger picture in terms of what is right and what is wrong. Fundamental principles will always transcend petty political squabbles.
it’s very simple.
Our US gov. always wastes our hard-earned tax $ by masturbating around issues like not other country.
it’s very simple dear gov:
it is not up to you to control/define our liberties! period!!
the fact that you meet, in secret or not, about deciding people’s extent to freedom, is unconstitutional, hypocritical, and frankly pathetic.
the big irony of democracy:
the more freedom you give your people, the least you control them on all levels, the more they, we, will respect you and the least you’ll have to fear. period!