TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - United States major technology-based companies Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, AOL, LinkedIn, and Apple, formed a coalition to launch a campaign called the "Reform Government Surveillance" as a protest towards NSA for spying on their users. The action was carried out after Edward Snowden, an NSA former contractor, revealed that NSA took the data of online service users for the US interest in national security.
Digital Trends website wrote on Monday, December 9, 2013, that the companies outlined five "principles" so that the US government will revamp the way it spies on its citizens. These principles include "sensible" limits on the government's ability to collect users' personal data, stringent oversight of the laws and courts that govern how the NSA and other spy agencies operate, increased transparency with regards to government demands for user data, support of the free flow of information across national boundaries, and the establishment of a "robust, principled, and transparent framework" that resolves conflicting legal jurisdictions.
In addition to Twitter and LinkedIn, other companies also reported an information leakage last June. Microsoft and Yahoo then encrypted their users' data for their security.
Earlier in 2013, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, AOL, and LinkedIn reportedly supported the USA Freedom Act that allows companies to be more transparent about government demands for users data, while the Reform Government Surveillance act serves as a protest to the government.
"People won't use technology they don't trust. Governments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore it," Brad Smith, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs of Microsoft, said.
RINDU P HESTYA | DIGITAL TRENDS
