Apple, Facebook and Google Demand NSA Reform

Several tech companies, including Apple, Facebook and Google are demanding that the U.S. Senate approve and expand National Security Agency reform.

Reform Government Surveillance, a group of tech companies, published an open letter demanding Senate beef up the NSA reform bill that passed the House, according to TechCrunch. The letter wants the Senate to "pass a version of the USA Freedom Act" that would make Internet users comfortable. From the letter:

Unfortunately, the version that just passed the House of Representatives could permit bulk collection of Internet “metadata” (e.g. who you email and who emails you), something that the Administration and Congress said they intended to end. Moreover, while the House bill permits some transparency, it is critical to our customers that the bill allow companies to provide even greater detail about the number and type of government requests they receive for customer information.

Signing the letter are the chief executives of  AOL, Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Linkedin, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo, TechCrunch reported. The open letter will appear in various publications Thursday. 

The biggest problem with the bill is that it still allows mass collection of user data, which means few are safe if NSA agents want to look through big dumps of data. Although many have criticized tech companies for selling user information, the same companies seem to be on the side of government surveillance reform. 
 
 
 
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