Obama reassures Internet CEOs on tech privacy

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A week before a self-imposed deadline
for a review of National Security Agency programs, President Barack
Obama sought Friday to assure leading Internet and tech executives that
his administration is committed to protecting people’s privacy.
CEOs
from Facebook, Google, Netflix and others spent more than two hours
with Obama in the Oval Office discussing their concerns about NSA spying
programs, which have drawn outrage from tech companies whose data have
been scooped up by the government. Joining Obama and the CEOs were
Obama’s commerce secretary, homeland security adviser, and counselor
John Podesta, whom Obama has tasked with leading a review of privacy and
"big data."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues
departed the White House without speaking to reporters. The White House
said Obama gave the CEOs an update on the big data review, which is
examining the complex and evolving relationship between the government,
its citizens and their private information.
"The president
reiterated his administration’s commitment to taking steps that can give
people greater confidence that their rights are being protected while
preserving important tools that keep us safe," the White House said in a
statement.
Separate from the big data review, Obama in January
directed the government to develop and present alternatives for who
should store the phone records from hundreds of millions of Americans
that the NSA holds. Obama gave the Justice Department until March 28 to
report back, with an eye toward eventually stripping the massive data
collection from the government’s hands.
That review and other
limits on secret spying were prompted by disclosures from former NSA
systems analyst Edward Snowden that enraged Internet companies like
Google when it was alleged that the NSA had secretly tapped into the
main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers
around the world.
In the lead-up to Friday’s meeting, Zuckerberg
took to his own Facebook page to strongly condemn Obama’s administration
for its secret spying tactics, following reports that the NSA had once
used spoofs of the social network to infect computers with malware.
Facebook
said Zuckerberg raised his concerns directly to Obama on Friday and was
grateful for his personal engagement. In a statement, the company
called it an "honest talk" about government intrusion and its toll on
people’s confidence that the Internet is free and open.
"While the
U.S. government has taken helpful steps to reform its surveillance
practices, these are simply not enough," said Facebook spokeswoman Jodi
Seth.
Google recently enhanced the encryption technology for its
flagship email service to make it harder for the NSA to intercept
messages moving among the company’s data centers. Yahoo has promised
similar steps.
Representatives for Google and Netflix declined to
comment on Friday’s meeting. Also attending the session were Reed
Hastings of Netflix and Drew Houston of the file storage site Dropbox.
___
Associated Press writer Marcy Gordon contributed to this report.
Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
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