STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 1 November 2013

[Demeter]

40. Tech calls for more NSA checks CORPS. CAN THE NSA?

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/tech-nsa-checks-99202.html

Silicon Valley has stood firm in its call for more government transparency about Internet surveillance requests — but now the industry is asking for more checks on the NSA’s authority.

A coalition of major tech firms called for new, if vague, privacy protections and oversight reforms in a letter Thursday to House and Senate Judiciary sponsors of Congress’s most sweeping surveillance reform bill yet. The letter was sent one day after a new report from The Washington Post alleged that the NSA has infiltrated the communications links between data centers owned by Google and Yahoo.

“Transparency is a critical first step to an informed public debate, but it is clear that more needs to be done,” Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and America Online wrote. “Our companies believe that government surveillance practices should also be reformed to include substantial enhancements to privacy protections and appropriate oversight and accountability mechanisms for those programs.”

The firms, which have been at the heart of the private-sector push for more freedom to shed sunlight on the kinds of data requests they get, offered applause for the sponsors of the USA Freedom Act, which Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) introduced Tuesday along with more than 80 co-sponsors. It’s a reflection that tech firms, which found themselves on the defensive after the first leaks from Edward Snowden, are now playing more offense in a climate where major revelations over the NSA’s snooping powers seem to be the norm. An industry source said the proximity of Thursday’s letter to the Post report was coincidental, but Wednesday’s story still prompted a reaction, at least from Google, that entered new territory. It was Mountain View’s top lawyer’s “outrage” that made the headlines Wednesday evening, but it was his contention that the revelation “underscores the need for urgent reform” that held the most weight yet from an industry that has been publicly focused on increased government disclosures...


I SUPPOSE WE SHOULD BE GRATEFUL THAT OUR LEADING "CITIZENS" ARE FINDING SOME NEED FOR GOVERNMENT RESTRAINT...

WHEN THEY OUGHT TO BE CALLING FOR A TOTAL SHUTDOWN AND DISMANTLING OF THE NSA, CIA, AND THE OTHER 22 OR SO SPY AGENCIES WHO CANNOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN FRIENDS, ENEMIES, TREATIES AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS...