Obama to Meet With Tech Giants Over Surveillance, Obamacare

[Wilikon]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/12/16/obama-to-meet-with-tech-giants-over-surveillance-obamacare/?mod=WSJ__MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, facing growing pressure from Silicon Valley, will meet Tuesday with executives from Google Inc.GOOG +1.15%, Facebook Inc.FB +0.92% and other technology and telecommunications giants to discuss their concerns about America’s surveillance operations.

According to the White House, Mr. Obama will also meet with the executives to talk about progress with the troubled online federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, and ways the government and technology industry can partner to boost economic growth.

The meeting comes a week after a group of technology companies jointly penned a letter to lash out at the Obama administration for collecting information on Americans. The companies said they wanted to see greater oversight of the government’s surveillance operations and limits on the government’s authority to compel companies to disclose data about their customers.

The letter followed a wave of disclosures about U.S. spying operations by Edward Snowden, a former government contractor now in Russia. The president will also talk about the national security concerns prompted by the leaks and their effect on the economy.

The administration has been reviewing U.S. spying operations and considering steps to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans. Last week, a presidential task force submitted to the White House more than 40 recommendations to overhaul the National Security Agency. Mr. Obama’s chief spokesman, Jay Carney, said the White House was reviewing the report and would make public the full report in January.

All told, 15 executives are expected at the meeting including Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Reed Hastings and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
Chad Dickerson, CEO, Etsy
Reed Hastings, Co-Founder & CEO, Netflix
Drew Houston, Founder & CEO, Dropbox
Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo!
Burke Norton, Chief Legal Officer, Salesforce
Mark Pincus, Founder, Chief Product Officer & Chairman, Zynga
Shervin Pishevar, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Sherpa Global
Brian Roberts, Chairman & CEO, Comcast
Erika Rottenberg, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, LinkedIn
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google
Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft
Randall Stephenson, Chairman & CEO, AT&T

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Netflix? Can't even take a break with Netflix? 

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[Sindelar1938]

I expect no radical departures from current policy. Sadly.
But one is allowed to have hope.

[surfer43]

Wow. Meet with corporations like Google who do not respect privacy at all to discuss surveillance in an attempt to reduce government invasion of privacy.   

[Wilikon]

Wow. Meet with corporations like Google who do not respect privacy at all to discuss surveillance in an attempt to reduce government invasion of privacy.   

Exactly:

TECH EXECS MEET WITH OBAMA TO FIX HEALTHCARE.GOV AND... SOCIAL INEQUITY
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/12/16/Tech-Executives-Meet-with-Obama

[...]
White House officials told CNN that the meeting will concentrate on the controversial NSA surveillance programs as well. Today, a Federal Judge ruled that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of metadata -- phone numbers and records of customers without disclosure of conversations -- violates Fourth Amendment privacy rights. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others have recently criticized the NSA program as being intrusive.

Ironically, these same tech companies use private information that they obtain on their websites to target advertising and promotions at individuals to increase revenues. Customers who download apps from these companies frequently do not read the terms and conditions which grant those companies access to their private information.

[cryptasm]

Since when is Etsy a tech giant? 

[Wilikon]

Obama 'hijacks' tech executive meeting, changes subject from NSA surveillance to healthcare.gov fixes
'We didn't really care for a PR pitch' about Obamacare, said one executive
The White House telegraphed in advance that the president wanted to talk up his efforts to fix healthcare.gov, but no one in the room was interested
Tech executives gathered in the Roosevelt Room to discuss the NSA's overreach in seizing their digital records
A federal judge ruled Monday that the practice violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantees against unreasonable searches

During a White House meeting called to brief America's largest tech companies about government overreach in electronic surveillance, President Barack Obama changed the subject – angering some meeting participants by shifting gears to address the failed launch of healthcare.gov.

'That wasn't what we came for,' a vice president of a company whose CEO attended told MailOnline. 'We really didn't care for a PR pitch about how the administration is trying to salvage its internal health care tech nightmare.'

One executive said that meeting participants were dead-set against straying from the principal  focus of the meeting – the uncomfortable and legally untenable position they are in when the National Security Agency demands access to their digital records.

The White House said in advance that the meeting would include a discussion of healthcare.gov, but the company executive said the only subject that mattered to the participants was the NSA.

'He basically hijacked the meeting,' the executive said. 'We all told the White House that we were only there to talk about what the NSA was up to and how it affects us.'

Yet Obama, according to insiders, repeatedly peppered the discussion with reassuring words about how the Affordable Care Act's marquee website was well on its way to becoming functional.

The change was so noticeable that an AFP/Getty photographer assigned to cover the event noted in a photo caption only that Obama was there to 'meet with executives from leading tech companies to discuss progress with healthcare.gov.'

One executive of a company represented at the meeting told The Guardian that a change of focus 'is not going to happen. We are there to talk about the NSA.'

Another said issues other than intelligence agencies' snooping are 'peripheral.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2525447/Obama-hijacks-tech-executive-meeting-changes-subject-NSA-surveillance-healthcare-gov-fixes.html

[battlescars]

we already know how this is going to end, good for the bad guys and bad for the good guys.

This is some BS that's occurring and going on, they know everything that is going on in the streets!!

Do you have any ideas how to stop this? i dont know how, live in the amazon with the tribes?

no such thing as anonymity any more, will bitcoin save us? i dont think so either!

[Wilikon]

Facebook has said that it is within its terms of service to see what users are typing even when the status or comment is never posted on the social network.
The Menlo Park, Calif., company confirmed that it can track users' unpublished posts after two Facebook researchers disclosed that they had tracked the activity of about 5 million random Facebook users in the U.S. and England.
The researchers' study looked at how often these users censored themselves while typing posts and comments on Facebook. If users typed more than five characters, the content was tracked. It was considered to be self-censored if it was not published within 10 minutes of being typed.

Facebook said the study did not track the exact words and letters that users typed, but whether or not they typed something. The methodology for the study also kept the tracked users anonymous, Facebook said.
“This is something we looked at to understand to what extent people self censor,” Facebook spokesman Matt Steinfeld told The Times.
Facebook said it was no longer tracking any users when it comes to unpublished posts. It also has no plans to track the unpublished words and letters that users type.
But Facebook said the study was conducted in accordance to the terms of service that every user agrees to when they sign up for the social network.
So where in Facebook's terms of service is this justified? The company said this is covered in its Data Use Policy.
"We receive data about you whenever you use or are running Facebook, such as when you look at another person's timeline, send or receive a message, search for a friend or a Page, click on, view or otherwise interact with things .... ," the Data Use Policy says in the section titled "Information we receive and how it is used."
Concerned users can do two things to protect themselves. They can stop using the service, or they can browse the website using a browser with Javascript turned off.
Javascript is the browser software that allowed the Facebook researchers to track whether users typed something or not during the study this summer. It's the same kind of software that allows Gmail to save users' email drafts.
Users can search for instructions for how to turn off Javascript for their browser, which would prevent Facebook from being able to track whether a user has a typed a post or comment, should the company decide to do that again.
But Javascript is an important part of many websites, so users who do turn it off should not be surprised if some of their favorite sites don't function properly.


http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-facebook-can-track-users-unpublished-posts-20131217,0,7847582.story#ixzz2nnCf0VIk

[Spendulus]

I expect no radical departures from current policy. Sadly.
But one is allowed to have hope.

Believe nothing they say.

[Ch1bi]

The president is so lax about the whole NSA spying so I expect no change to come of this.. So why did they even bother coming to a meeting?

[Wilikon]

The president is so lax about the whole NSA spying so I expect no change to come of this.. So why did they even bother coming to a meeting?

Correction: the president OBAMA LOVES the spying the NSA is doing. Do not give that excuse the most tech savvy team did not know or too busy or too lax to know what the NSA is doing...

[battlescars]

What a pointless thread, we are hopeless and all doomed , cameras on streets since a long time ago this isnt a new thing,
Once we realize how deeply we are getting messed up, now they even added social websites where they can see and know
everything we do , think  where we are and where we live,

Also these phones that people have carry gps to locate the phone, which means your always being followed,

BACK TO THE AMAZON FOR ME!
edit: i meant pointless article. not thread

[Wilikon]

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/18/obama-led-independent-review-us-surveillance-programs-issues-final-report-46-recommendations/?fromcat=all#!qdo1x

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.


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[beetcoin]

this issue was the one that officially turned me against obama. i don't know the exact reason for this meeting, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were just a PR stunt.

[Wilikon]

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/18/obama-led-independent-review-us-surveillance-programs-issues-final-report-46-recommendations/?fromcat=all#!qdo1x

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.

The independent committee appointed by President Obama to review the US government’s spying practices has issued its final report (PDF), making 46 recommendations for how to reform the programs.


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[U1TRA_L0RD]

Dammit, I cant watch porn without being interrogated by the NSA, I cant look up chemical engineering homework information without being interrogated by the NSA saying I w=am a suspicious terrorist suspect, haha lol.