A new review panel created by President Barack Obama to analyze possible reforms for US government surveillance spoke mainly of tech companies concerns, not National Security Agency spying overreach, during its first meeting.
Attendees of the meeting early this week told the Guardian
newspaper discussions were mostly based around the apprehensions
and interests of major technology firms. Little about public
privacy or real changes to the mass global phone and internet
data collection programs was involved.
During the meeting, outside attendees were divided into rights
organizations, like the American Civil Liberties Union and the
Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the tech companies,
including Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo. The two
groups met in separate locations. Two panelists, Michael Morrell
and Richard Clarke, with intelligence backgrounds did not attend
the civil liberties meeting. All five panelists attended the tech
company session.
Robert Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and
Innovation Foundation attended the meeting and told the Guardian
he "did not hear much discussion" of transforming how the
NSA collects data from around the world, including America.
"I didn't find anyone saying the bulk surveillance is
horrendous and bad for our democracy,” said Sascha Meinrath,
a vice president of the New America Foundation and the director
of the Open Technology Institute, who also attended. “The
companies are concerned that it impacts their bottom line. My
concern is they're looking to preserve the function of the
NSA.”
When asked if that was the perspective of the government or the
companies, he responded, "I'm not sure you can separate the
two."
Meinrath said the 90-minute meeting was dominated by tech unease
about perceptions of their cooperation with the NSA and that
business may suffer for the association, especially since the
government has forbidden the companies from revealing certain
details about the relationship.
Some Internet firms have filed legal action in efforts to share
more information about the nature of their work with the US
government. Meinrath said they wished to express to the public
the amount of coercion involved in the spying programs.
In addition to Meinrath and Atkinson, other outside attendees at
the meeting included Alan Davidson of MIT and representatives of
the Information Technology Industry Council, Rackspace, and the
Software and Information Industry Association.
The panel -- the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications
Technology -- was formed to review NSA spying programs following
revelations made public by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden. The panel is to keep in contact with
the White House to possibly recommend reforms to “make sure that
there absolutely is no abuse in terms of how these surveillance
technologies are used,” as Obama described the group when he
first announced its intentions on Aug. 9.
Later in August, the White House filled out the panel with five
men who all had close ties to the intelligence community or the
Obama administration: Morrell, former CIA deputy director;
Clarke, former counterterror adviser to multiple presidents; Cass
Sunstein, former Obama White House staffer; Peter Swire, former
aide to Obama and President Bill Clinton; and Geoffrey Stone,
Chicago Law professor who is close personally with Obama.
Attendees said the tech representatives -- only identified in the
meeting by their companies and not their names, Meinrath said --
also expressed being disturbed by the NSA’s undermining of
encryption standards around the web.
"There was one discussion about how the NSA has been involved
in the global encryption community, [to] develop better
standards. The NSA won't be welcomed anymore in these
conversations," Atkinson said of what seemed to be a new
distrust coming from the companies.
Meinrath said once the conversation seemed to steer toward talk
of surveillance reform, attendees and panel members hesitated to
move forward, suggesting a classified meeting.
Panel findings are due to Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper in October, who will pass on recommendations to Obama.
Final propositions are due for announcement in December.
"My fear is it's a simulacrum of meaningful reform," said
Meinrath. "Its function is to bleed off pressure, without
getting to the meaningful reform."