The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), on...
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), on behalf of a coalition of Internet companies and nonprofit organizations, sent a letter Thursday to President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander and members of Congress…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
urging more transparency for national security-related requests by the U.S. government (http://bit.ly/12KaDJL). Apple, Facebook, Google, Mozilla, Twitter and other Internet companies said the U.S. government should regularly report statistics for the number of government requests for information about their users, the number of individuals, accounts or devices and the number of requests for each authority that sought information. The coalition wants a regular “transparency report” by the U.S. government in addition to its annual reporting with “the total number of requests under specific authorities for specific types of data, and the number of individuals affected by each.” The coalition requested the Department of Justice agree to let Internet, telephone and Web-based providers publish specific numbers on government requests that the national security authorities authorize as an initial step. The coalition urged Congress to pass legislation requiring “comprehensive transparency reporting” by the federal government and to allow companies to do their own transparency reporting without needing to seek permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or the government. “Just as the United States has long been an innovator when it comes to the Internet and products and services that rely upon the Internet, so too should it be an innovator when it comes to creating mechanisms to ensure that government is transparent, accountable, and respectful of civil liberties and human rights,” said the letter. It’s co-signed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Computer and Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Internet Association, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and TechFreedom. “Transparency around government surveillance is critical to the Internet economy,” said Kevin Bankston, CDT senior counsel who organized the joint letter, in a statement (http://bit.ly/1bLZU54). “Internet companies responsible for protecting the privacy and security of our communications need to maintain the trust of their users in the U.S. and around the globe. Allowing companies to issue transparency reports that contain basic information about the government’s demands for data will help them do just that.”