Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA surveillance secrets
Yahoo CEO Mayer: we faced jail if we revealed NSA
surveillance secrets
Mark Zuckerberg joins Mayer in hitting back at critics of
tech companies, saying US government did 'bad job' of balancing people's
privacy and duty to protect
theguardian.com, Wednesday 11 September 2013 20.18 EDT
Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo, and Mark Zuckerberg of
Facebook struck back on Wednesday at critics who have charged tech companies
with doing too little to fight off NSA surveillance. Mayer said executives
faced jail if they revealed government secrets.
Yahoo and Facebook, along with other tech firms, are
pushing for the right to be allowed to publish the number of requests they
receive from the spy agency. Companies are forbidden by law to disclose how
much data they provide.
During an interview at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference
in San Francisco, Mayer was asked why tech companies had not simply decided to
tell the public more about what the US surveillance industry was up to.
"Releasing classified information is treason and you are
incarcerated," she said.
Mayer said she was "proud to be part of an
organisation that from the beginning, in 2007, has been sceptical of – and has
been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA]."
Yahoo has previously unsuccessfully sued the foreign
intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which provides the legal framework for
NSA surveillance. In 2007 it asked to be allowed to publish details of requests
it receives from the spy agency. "When you lose and you don't comply, it's
treason," said Mayer. "We think it make more sense to work within the
system," she said.
Zuckerberg said the government had done a "bad
job" of balancing people's privacy and its duty to protect. "Frankly
I think the government blew it," he said.
He said after the news broke in the Guardian and the
Washington Post about Prism, the government surveillance programme that targets
major internet companies: "The government response was, 'Oh don't worry we
are not spying on any Americans.' Oh wonderful that's really helpful to
companies that are trying to serve people around the world and that's really
going to inspire confidence in American internet companies."
"I thought that was really bad," he said.
Zuckerberg said Facebook and others were pushing successfully for more
transparency. "We are not at the end of this. I wish that the government
would be more proactive about communicating. We are not psyched that we had to
sue in order to get this and we take it very seriously," he said.
On Monday, executives from Yahoo, Facebook, Google and
other tech leaders met the president's group on intelligence and
communications, tasked with reviewing the US's intelligence and communications
technologies in the wake of the NSA revelations.
The meeting came as Yahoo and Facebook filed suits once
more to force the Fisa court to allow them to disclose more information.
In its motion, Yahoo said: "Yahoo has been unable to
engage fully in the debate about whether the government has properly used its
powers, because the government has placed a prior restraint on Yahoo's
speech."
It went on: "Yahoo's inability to respond to news
reports has harmed its reputation and has undermined its business not only in
the United States but worldwide. Yahoo cannot respond to such reports with mere
generalities," the company said.
Microsoft and Google also filed their latest legal briefs
on Monday to force the Fisa court to disclose more information.
In a blogpost, Google said it was asking for permission
to publish "detailed statistics about the types (if any) of national
security requests" it receives under Fisa.
"Given the important public policy issues at stake,
we have also asked the court to hold its hearing in open rather than behind
closed doors. It's time for more transparency," said Google.
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