Google, Microsoft lead campaign to limit govt surveillance

Eight technology giants, including Google and Microsoft, have started a public campaign to limit government surveillance of users, The New York Times reports.

The companies — Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, LinkedIn, and Yahoo — published an open letter in national newspapers and opened a website at reformgovernmentsurveillance.com (which, curiously, doesn’t work at the time of this writing).

In the letter, the Reform Government Surveillance group is calling for the U.S. President and Congress to limit surveillance of people, as it “undermines” their freedoms.

“We understand that governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But this summer’s revelations highlighted the urgent need to reform government surveillance practices worldwide,” the letter said.

“The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish.”

The initiative comes after a string of leaks this summer, detailing the NSA’s extensive surveillance of users, including spying on data centers of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other tech companies.