FBs Zuckerberg Complains to Obama Over Govt Spying NEW YORK;Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, has complained directly to President Obama about the continuing revelations that the United States government has secretly spied on the activities of some of his company’s 1.2 billion users. Mr. Zuckerberg spoke with the president on Wednesday following the most recent news report on the National Security Agency’s surveillance tactics. The account, published in The Intercept from documents leaked by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden, described how government computers sometimes masqueraded as Facebook servers in order to send malicious software to infect the machines of Facebook users. The documents say the process was automated so the N.S.A. could target millions of people for the attacks. In a public post on Thursday to users of the social network, Mr. Zuckerberg said he was “confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the U.S. government.” He continued: When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government. The U.S. government should be the champion for the Internet, not a threat. They need to be much more transparent about what they’re doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst. I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform. Mr. Zuckerberg’s complaints reflect growing concerns among Silicon Valley companies that government spying is eroding the trust that users have in common Internet services. “To keep the Internet strong, we need to keep it secure,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. The Facebook chief has criticized the federal government’s surveillance activities several times since the first Snowden documents were published last June. At a mobile industry conference in Barcelona in February, Mr. Zuckerberg said the N.S.A.’s actions were “way over the line.” But Thursday was the first time he has mentioned discussing his concerns with the president. In a statement on Thursday, the N.S.A. said that it does not use its technical capabilities to impersonate U.S. company websites. “N.S.A. uses its technical capabilities only to support lawful and appropriate foreign intelligence operations, all of which must be carried out in strict accordance with its authorities,” the agency said. “Reports of indiscriminate computer exploitation operations are simply false.” A White House spokeswoman confirmed that the president spoke with Mr. Zuckerberg on Wednesday night but declined further comment beyond the N.S.A.’s statement. (Reuters)
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 05:35:36 +0000
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