<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear subscribers,<div><br></div><div>As you know, I'm Geneva Representative of CCIA in my day job - this press release from us would, I thought, be of interest to many of you.<br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">June 11, 2013</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><b><span style="font-family: Arial; "> </span></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><b><span style="font-family: Arial; ">CCIA Calls for Disclosure of Government Surveillance,
Praises Bill To Declassify Some FISA Court Rulings</span></b></span></span></p><div style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">Washington – Recent reports regarding NSA access to phone
call metadata and online communications and data have highlighted the continued
importance of government transparency. The Computer & Communications
Industry Association commends the specific requests of both senators and
companies today that would help.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">CCIA shares the grave concerns expressed about the
allegations in these disclosures. The Association supports recently
proposed legislation to declassify the legal decisions providing the basis for
government surveillance, and joins industry in calling for transparency in the
frequency which the government seeks data from U.S. business.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">Without knowledge about how the law is being interpreted and
used, proper debate about practices is impossible. A group of Senators have
realized this fact, and </span></span></span><a href="http://www.merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=5D5997D9-4BA1-46C3-BA86-D208EC82A31E"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family:Arial">introduced a bill</span></span></span><span style=""><span style=""></span></span></a><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; "> today that
would require the Department of Justice to declassify a large number of Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions. CCIA supports this effort, led by
Senators Merkley and Lee and joined by 6 other Senators.</span></span></span></p><div style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">CCIA has advocated against these sections of FISA for years
and testified before the Senate in 2007 that we had concerns about
accountability and transparency.</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; "> </span></span></span></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">The following can be attributed to CCIA President & CEO
Ed Black:</span></div><div style=""><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; "> </span></span></span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">“To make appropriate decisions about security in a free
society, the public should be informed about the legal principles governing
surveillance in America. Transparency is essential; secret law is antithetical
to democracy.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">“A top concern to consider is whether a secret executive
branch program using secret courts with oversight by lawmakers briefed secretly
can provide the adequate checks and balances intended by our founders. What is
missing is accountability and public scrutiny as part of the checks and
balances. That can only come with more transparency about what our nation is
doing so we can discuss as a nation whether it’s worth it.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">“We join industry in calling on the US government to enable
companies to report aggregate national security data requests it receives from
the government. Google issued such a request today in a letter to the attorney
general and FBI director and Facebook issued a similar request. In addition to
important transparency goals, there are serious First Amendment issues with
such gag orders.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">“As the industry that provides Internet services and
communications tools, we disagree with the notion that the scope of government
surveillance or how frequently these tools are used should be classified.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">“In this effort to gather security data, the broader picture
of the damage to the Internet was lost. Somehow the Internet as a global tool,
a trade tool and a trusted communication tool for people around the world was
not adequately weighed into the cost benefit analysis.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">“There are broad costs to our nation’s diplomatic, economic
and trade goals if the millions of people around the world using Internet
services to communicate are worried about how their information and data is
being used by the US government.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">About CCIA:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style=""><span style=""><span style="font-family: Arial; ">CCIA is a 40 year-old international, nonprofit association
of computer and communications and Internet industry firms, representing a
broad cross section of the industry. CCIA is dedicated to preserving full, fair
and open competition throughout our industry. Our members employ more than
600,000 workers and generate annual revenues in excess of $200 billion.</span></span></span></p></blockquote></div></div></body></html>