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Google, Apple, Mozilla, and the EFF Support Microsoft's Fight Against Gag Orders (betanews.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes BetaNews about new legal documents filed Friday:
Microsoft is fighting the US Justice Department in an attempt to quash a law that prevents companies informing customers that the government is requesting their data. The technology giant has the backing of other tech companies as well as media outlets. Amazon, Apple, Google, Fox News, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Mozilla are among those offering their support to Microsoft. The lawsuit says that blocking companies from keeping their customers informed is unconstitutional, and it comes at a time when tech companies in particular are keen to be as open and transparent as possible about government requests for data....
As EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien puts it: "Whether the government has a warrant to rifle through our mail, safety deposit boxes, or emails stored in the cloud, it must notify people about the searches. When electronic searches are done in secret, we lose our right to challenge the legality of law enforcement invasions of privacy. The Fourth Amendment doesn't allow that, and it's time for the government to step up and respect the Constitution."
Mozilla argues transparency "is critical to our vision of an open, trusted, secure web that places users in control of their experience online," in a blog post announcing that they'd joined a brief filed by Apple, Twilio, and Lithium Technologies.
And a statement from an EFF staff attorney argues that notifying the targets of searches "provides a free society with a crucial means of government accountability."
As EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien puts it: "Whether the government has a warrant to rifle through our mail, safety deposit boxes, or emails stored in the cloud, it must notify people about the searches. When electronic searches are done in secret, we lose our right to challenge the legality of law enforcement invasions of privacy. The Fourth Amendment doesn't allow that, and it's time for the government to step up and respect the Constitution."
Mozilla argues transparency "is critical to our vision of an open, trusted, secure web that places users in control of their experience online," in a blog post announcing that they'd joined a brief filed by Apple, Twilio, and Lithium Technologies.
And a statement from an EFF staff attorney argues that notifying the targets of searches "provides a free society with a crucial means of government accountability."
That we have to rely on corporations to make this fight for us is a sign of how bad off we are.
That "open, trusted, secure web" is something the government does not want. Not just the US government but, well, I think all of them. It's critical for an authoritarian establishment to be able to suppress dissenting opinions and to investigate and prevent dissemination of information that puts their control at risk - from both foreign and domestic sources. A government only permits a "free society with a crucial means of government accountability" so far as it ensures that the populace is satisfied enough not to revolt en masse. The primary job of a government is to keep itself in power, and the rest takes a backseat.
...and there's your daily dose of libertarian whackjob/conspiracy theory rambling. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
On the surface, this seems like corporations fighting for a noble cause, personal privacy.
But why? You can make an argument that good privacy is good business, that customers will flock to a platform that provides privacy and security of data. Yet at the same time, vast numbers of people flock to platforms like Facebook and Google services that basically turn their privacy into a product to sell to others.
From a cost perspective, it would seem to be cheaper for corporations to just quietly going along with government surveillance requests. Lower legal costs and greater credibility with national security advocates would seem beneficial.
Sometimes I wonder if the privacy battle isn't a noble fight for my privacy, but just a naked power struggle between corporations and the government that only seems like it's about rights which might apply to the individual, but is really about corporations wanting to do their own thing. I'd wager libertarians would cast this as as a struggle against government intervention, but even if the private sector wins, are individuals actually winning anything?
From TFS:
Yes, these people are really late to the party. But at least they (finally) showed up.
The problem we have is that the congress, which takes an oath WRT making constitutionally compliant law, consistently ignores that oath. This is compounded by the fact that the courts, which are charged (by themselves, but that's a different problem of very long standing) with making sure that laws that are not compliant with the constitution are struck down, consistently do not do so.
It remains to be seen if this will be yet another instance of congress and the courts working together to do what they want, rather than what they are actually authorized to do. But I wouldn't get my hopes up.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
While in the past, I agree that people were correct to hold the government accountable for this kind of surveillance, it isn't the biggest issue today. Huge amounts of information are gathered by companies about everybody on the 'net, and shared between them without any limitations. You don't want the government to see your email? Ok, fine -- but Google's incredibly powerful AI team doesn't just see your email -- it *understands* your email. Google can, and does, use that knowledge in any number of ways; and ways that will get more diverse (and perverse?) in the future.
In the not too distant future, I believe that companies like Google and Facebook will become more politically powerful than 99% of the governments in the world. Facebook was going to launch a satellite today to allow everybody in Africa to use Facebook; although somehow the rocket that was going to launch that satellite blew up. My belief is that Facebook wants to get information about everybody on the planet, and will do whatever it takes to do that.
Governments? Come on, that's not the threat.
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
Unlike the US government, Zuckerberg does not assert the right to drone-strike, rendition, civil forfeiture, SWAT or parallel construct your ass if he feels you are insufficiently patriotic.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
This is compounded by the fact that the courts, which are charged (by themselves, but that's a different problem of very long standing) with making sure that laws that are not compliant with the constitution are struck down, consistently do not do so.
The courts do so rarely, and avoid it if the law gives them a way to avoid it. For example, if it is possible to read a law in a way that would make it constitutional, they will do so (which may still restrict what the government can do with it.)
And there's a reason for that. Courts always walk a very fine line. The police do not work for them. The army does not work for them. Government officials, by and large, do not work for them. Criminal defendants do not work for them. The power of a court is directly dependent on whether people are willing to listen to it--very much like the old rule that a King can should NEVER make an order that will not be obeyed.
There are also more direct checks and balances. Congress can excuse laws from judicial review if it wants to, for example. The Constitution can also be changed to make a law constitutional--as has happened a number of times in United States History.
And, of course, the judgment of history will come down very heavily on certain decisions, in a way it almost never does on any Congress or even President--Dred Scott and Korematsu being the most obvious.
The Courts are very powerful, but they are also very cautious. (Anything you may have read about too many "activist judges" is primarily ignorant or intentionally misleading commentary aimed at manipulating voters.)
Real lawyers write in C++