Tech Leaders Push Back Against Obama's Efforts To Divert Discussion From NSA 312
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "The Guardian reports that while President Obama tried to portray a meeting with tech leaders as a wide-ranging discussion of broader priorities including ways of improving the functionality of the troubled health insurance website Healthcare.gov, senior executives from Apple, Yahoo, Google, Comcast, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and Netflix said they were determined to keep the discussion focused on the NSA. 'We are there to talk about the NSA,' said one executive who was briefed on the company's agenda before the event. After meeting Obama and vice president Joe Biden for two-and-a-half hours, the companies issued a one-line statement. 'We appreciated the opportunity to share directly with the president our principles on government surveillance that we released last week and we urge him to move aggressively on reform.' Many of the senior tech leaders had already made public their demand for sweeping surveillance reforms in an open letter that specifically called for a ban on the kind of bulk data collection that a federal judge ruled on Monday was probably unlawful. Obama seemed sympathetic to the idea of allowing more disclosure of government surveillance requests by technology companies, according to a tech industry official who was briefed on the meeting. Marissa Mayer brought up concerns about the potentially negative impact that could be caused if countries, such as Brazil, move forward with legislation that would require service providers to ensure that data belonging to a citizen of a certain country remain in the country it originates, the official said. That would require technology companies to build data centers in each country — a costly problem for American Internet companies. The decision by the tech giants to press their case in such a public and unified way poses a problem for the White House. The industry is an increasingly influential voice in Washington, a vital part of the US economy and many of its most successful leaders are prominent Democratic political donors."
Obama forgot he works for the Americans ! (Score:3, Insightful)
Obama forgot who his bosses are.
Obama thought he has become the KING of the Americans.
Obama is but one of the civil servants whose salaries are being paid by the American taxpayers.
Re:He's the President. (Score:5, Insightful)
He did not hijack your meeting.
They are not accusing him of hijacking the meeting. They are accusing him of spinning (or lying about) what happened in the meeting. I accept that Obama doesn't care much about the rights of the citizens, but he needs to understand that pervasive surveillance is also bad for business. When these companies move their data centers abroad, the jobs go with them. More and more people just don't want to do business with American tech companies. This is just as stupid as the encryption embargo that destroyed thousands of American jobs back in the 1990s.
Re:Obama forgot he works for the Americans ! (Score:5, Insightful)
Not like those corporation give a rat's ass about the constitution or citizen liberties. They're only there because, like Marissa said, all those foreign countries getting suspicious of NSA might require them (the corporations) to build datacenter in every country they operate, and that's gonna be very costly to them.
Re:Obama forgot he works for the Americans ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Obama forgot who his bosses are.
Obama thought he has become the KING of the Americans.
Obama is but one of the civil servants whose salaries are being paid by the American taxpayers.
Although I am no great fan of President Obama, generally, and wish it was someone else, you nonetheless have that quite wrong. He isn't a "civil servant." Civil servants are hired help of the Executive branch of government.
President Obama is the President of the United States of America, leader of the country, a position long known as leader of the Free World, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America, the man empowered to authorize the launch of nuclear weapons, the head of the executive branch of the United States, the man who appoints the heads of the executive departments with the advice and consent of the Senate, the man who appoints Ambassadors, and the highest elected official in the country - one of only two national offices. His signature or acquiescence is generally required for bills passed by Congress to become law, otherwise he can block them unless the Congress musters 2/3 majority vote to override him, which rarely happens.
He isn't king, but as President he wields the highest authority of the executive branch. When backed by Congress he has enormous power.
You aren't his boss, he isn't a shoeshine boy that you can bark at. If you voted, you helped elect him, but that is past now. He has the office, and there is no recall. He can only be removed before his term expires for high crimes and misdemeanors as charged in the House and tried in the Senate. Although the Constitution and the courts are a key check on his power, the Congress is key. So far the country seems content on maintaining a Democratic Senate, which ensures he will have plenty of leverage to enact the unwise policies of his party.
It would be great if you started getting this sort of stuff right, you sound like you are howling at the moon.
Re:Easy "fix" (Score:5, Insightful)
or what a democrat would do: lower their taxes in exchange for silence..oh wait.
Re:Only big busniess is allowed to steal my info (Score:5, Insightful)
Big business doesn't feel they have the legal authority to send a hellfire missile into your living due to that data. I'm a little less worried about Netflix tricking me into renting more movies than I had intended. The two just aren't comparable.
Re:He's the President. (Score:5, Insightful)
but he needs to understand that pervasive surveillance is also bad for business.
No, getting caught is bad for business. Some of the ways that cooperation and collaboration is rewarded (e.g. trade secrets) are quite good for business, which is why nobody made a stink about this before these revelations became public.
And this was a "modern" president? (Score:3, Insightful)
What I find fascinating is how the media had us believe that the man was elected because his campaign was the "modern" one, the one that had whole of the Internet dialed in, total control over and support of social media, and everything tech and hip on its side. And yet that same organization can't get a website running properly, particularly one that people don't get to use but have to use. And that same organization wants to deflect criticism and blame for the NSA's current methods.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
If I'm here and you're here, doesn't that ... (Score:5, Insightful)
He did not hijack your meeting. It was always his. Get over yourself.
"If I'm here and you're here, doesn't that make it our time?" -- Jeff Spicoli
If anyone needs to get over himself it is the President. He is not a dictator. If he wants the support of the people he needs to listen to the people. If he wants the support of industry he needs to listen to industry. The people and industry are not here to do his bidding. He works for us.
Re:Obama forgot he works for the Americans ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Given the nature of the ideological quagmire, one might reasonably argue that the best is the enemy of the good.
It's not entirely clear he even managed to reach the good. It is quite possible that ACA will end up making things worse in the country.
As President he deserves respect ... (Score:3, Insightful)
If the tech industry's #1 concern is NSA overreach then they are correct to stay on that topic until satisfied with the President's response. The tech industry is not obligated to fix his healthcare IT and personal PR problems.
Re:He's the President. (Score:5, Insightful)
He did not hijack your meeting. It was always his. Get over yourself.
Wrong, the President is to serve the people. It's not about what he wants, it's about what the people want.
The President might be in charge, but it's only because he was voted in. His responsibility is to the citizens of the USA, not to himself.
Re:He's the President. (Score:5, Insightful)
He did not hijack your meeting. It was always his. Get over yourself.
It's not his government. It never was his. It belongs to the citizens. The man that you're defending has gone against the constitution and the will of the people. Get over yourself. Bush and Obama have made a mockery of the constitution. Both parties are trampling our rights and everyone seems to overlook their own party's evils while they're ready to attack the other with pitchforks and torches.
Re: As President he deserves respect ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fuck that. In my book respect has to be earned, even for the President.
And the man currently in the job never earned my respect. The man previously in the job earned my respect, but then he lost it. The one before him didn't have my respect initially, but ironically looking at his whole record and past his indiscretions he's earned some respect for what he did with the job.
But these latest two Presidents; in the end, neither is worthy of my respect.
Re:He's the President. (Score:4, Insightful)
Ahh yes, good old US B$ A, it not was it actually is, it is all about what it looks like. Lie, cheat, steal and kill, all cool as long as a solid layer of bullshit covers it all. Get exposed for what is actually going on, what everyone is actually up too and all hell breaks lose, until more bullshit can be generated to cover it all up again.
I can assure you lying, cheating, stealing and killing is bad for everyone (except of course for the psychopaths doing it, they are having a great old time), whether or not the truth is exposed and they finally get caught and if there is any real semblance of justice, actually publicly prosecuted and penalised.
Re:He's a *LOUSY* president. (Score:4, Insightful)
Voting election is like bidding in a slave auction.
Any form of participation in the event gives it legitimacy it doesn't deserve.
Unfortunately (Score:4, Insightful)
This comment is complete and utter bullshit, which harms people suffering from real racist issues. I do understand that you learned this from people paid to distribute propaganda, and perhaps you are just "one of those people".
Obama is no different than Bush, who was no different than Clinton, who was no different from Bush, etc... Each of these people had no care for US Citizens in general, just their buddies followed by themselves. Those are verifiable facts based on actions these people took, not because of what they said. Nothing is racist by pointing out that they are failing in their duties as representatives of "The People".
Thanks for playing "I'm an idiot!", you win the game!
Re: He's a *LOUSY* president. (Score:5, Insightful)
Voting in the United States is, indeed, heavily broken. You should still vote. Just don't vote for a Democrat or Republican.
Re:Obama forgot he works for the Americans ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: He's a *LOUSY* president. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope.
Not voting reveals the system for what it is: violence concealed by the division of labor.
Voting in an election is as moral as bidding in a slave auction. In both cases participation gives both processes the illusion of legitimacy they do not deserve.
And by not voting you're electing not to be a slave just to the system, but also a slave to everyone around you. You think you've made some point. You have not. You've only surrendered the little power you have to take none at all.
And you've done so voluntarily, which is the real kicker. You think you're standing up to anyone? People who don't vote is exactly what corruption wants. You've voluntarily given up your rights to those you claim to stand up against. And you don't even realize you're playing right into their game.