The Computer & Communications Industry Association is sending
to all Members of Congress a joint letter expressing concern about the impact
of renewed efforts to expand the government’s power to wiretap and
electronically spy on citizens.
The open letter to members of Congress and the Administration is
jointly signed by the American Library Association, the Business Software
Alliance, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and others. The letter explains the serious harm to
users’ privacy and trust when government surveillance expands, especially with
insufficient checks and balances such as better judicial oversight. It also
offers questions to help the government determine whether this expansion is
appropriate.
CCIA has been a longtime voice against Internet censorship,
filtering and surveillance. A copy of the letter can be found here.
The following comments can be attributed to CCIA President &
CEO Ed Black:
“There is always a temptation in Washington to look at issues
separately rather than holistically from a set of core principles such as
Communications and Internet Freedom. When we oppose Internet filtering
censorship in repressive regimes, it makes it difficult to be taken seriously
when we engage in surveillance ourselves. While it is tempting to assume that
our government’s warrantless monitoring of telephone calls and burdensome
search engine subpoenas should not to be equated with the systematic oppression
in authoritarian states, these distinctions are hard to make to the rest of the
world. Quibbling about our government’s benign intent or the order of magnitude
of civilian monitoring undermines the credibility the U.S. government needs to truly
be a leader in the fight for Internet freedom and openness.
Even if this additional power is not deliberately misused, the
loss of privacy in personal and confidential business communications would
inflict significant damage on the dynamic and innovative growth intrinsic to
our digital economy and information technology sectors. Openness and growth in
electronic commerce cannot be sustained if end users fear a betrayal of privacy
and security.
The tech
industry is confronted with escalating monitoring and surveillance and
censorship by repressive foreign regimes.
We appreciate this administration’s efforts to get more involved in
promoting Internet freedom in our trade and diplomatic agendas. But those
efforts will ring hollow and fall flat if all we can show is that our own
surveillance is somewhat less intrusive or pervasive than those of Internet
Restricting Countries. These regimes would surely copy any expanded
surveillance policies we implement. Expanding the powers of law enforcement
might seem tempting in the short term, but we risk wounding our nation’s
security and moral authority in the long term.
