Tech giants rally together to curb NSA spying

November 17, 2014

A number of big-name tech companies are teaming up to lobby the Senate to pass legislation that would limit the reach of the NSA's spying activities, Bloomberg reported today. The coalition of tech giants includes the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft, among others.

The goal of the lobbying is to encourage the Senate to act on issues of NSA spying in advance of the Republican takeover of the chamber next year, as many members of the political party are seen as supportive of government surveillance programs.

Addressing the effect of revelations surrounding the extent of NSA spying, Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association which represents the tech giants, said that members of the group "have already lost contracts with foreign governments worth millions of dollars." This signals that the need to curb the NSA's reach is very real not only from a privacy standpoint, but an economic one as well.

We should see if their efforts pay off soon, as the companies are throwing their weight behind a Senate bill that goes up for vote on November 18th that would prevent the NSA from bulk-collecting subscribers' electronic communications.

Source: Bloomberg