[bestbits] Delivery of International civil society letter to Congress to follow up from HRC statement

[Mishi Choudhary]

Hello everyone,

My name is Mishi Choudhary and I am the executive director of SFLC.in, a
not for profit society working that works to advance technology policy
that supports political freedom and personal privacy, based in New
Delhi, India. I have been a silent observer for a few months on this
list but am pitching in on one point.


I strongly agree with Parminder about addressing the companies involved
as the importance of PRISM is that it shows everyone on earth that if
they store personal data in centralized services and communicate through
such centralized "platforms", sooner or later governments will greedily
spy on us all. If people want to protect freedom, they have to demand
and use technology that also protects freedom. The defensive , onus
shifting strategy, atleast the three major companies have adopted seem
too late , too little and more an eyewash for now.

Thanks everyone who is involved in this commendable effort. SFLC.in will
be signing the resultant statement .

On 06/12/2013 10:22 PM, parminder wrote:
> Hi All
>
> Sorry, have been behind on this and could not follow closely due to
> some pre occupations.... Did not suspect we have such a close deadline
> for delivery. I thought we had time.... I am unable to respond right
> now but have some comments which I can make only later in the day...
> Can we wait a day or two.... But pl go ahead if it is urgent...
>
> Two things bother me about the statement
>
> 1. While I am not against addressing it to the US gov normally, I have
> been appalled that in all the post PRISM clarifications, everything
> has eclusively been about protecting US citizens' interests, and
> saying that they would not do such a thing to US citizens (meaning
> very clearly that non US citizens are a very different matter). Not a
> word has been uttered about the rights of non US citizens, even when
> the worst transgressions have been made against them. I resent such an
> attitude of US gov, which makes me think whether I want to address it
> at all on this issue.. And even if addressed, this  point has to be
> foregrounded. Especially the hypocrisy of all the speak of "global
> Internet community' when the issue is critical Internet resources
> oversight, and that category of thought completely disappearing when
> real Internet governance issues come up need to be highlighted.
>
> 2. I am unable to understand why are we so soft on the involved
> companies. I need to know more why they did what they did and how, and
> why they could not be more transparent to their global customers....
> In India here most people feel a deep breach of trust.... I am not at
> all convinced that they are entirely clean on this, and they told us
> all that they legally could. Do we write a seperate letter to them....
> In fact, my view is, we write a general statement on the issue, not
> addressed to anyone, which covers both US govs's and these companies'
> culpabilities, or at least asks the needed probing questions from the
> latter. I have many such questions.
>
> parminder
>
>
>
> On Thursday 13 June 2013 01:57 AM, Deborah Brown wrote:
>> Hi all, 
>>
>> I wanted start a separate thread on delivery of the statement, as
>> it's looking like we're getting close to finalizing the text.
>>
>> Jeremy set a deadline of noon GMT on Thursday for edits, I believe.
>> I'm hearing that it would not be wise to deliver the letter this week
>> because Congress is consumed with immigration reform and the farm
>> bill. Plus delivering it on Friday would not be ideal if we want
>> media attention. 
>>
>> How do others feel about aiming for a Monday or Tuesday delivery?
>> Then as Joana mentioned, those who will be at the Freedom Online
>> Coalition meeting in Tunis can deliver it to officials there as well.
>>
>> If the plan is to deliver this to all members of Congress, we would
>> need contact information for all offices. Is that what others had in
>> mind? A number of groups that regularly do DC-based advocacy already
>> have this information, so perhaps it would make the most sense to
>> work with one of the more international groups with a DC presence on
>> delivery. Amnesty International and HRW come to mind, but there are
>> probably others. What do others think?
>>
>> Best, 
>> Deborah 
>> -- 
>> Deborah Brown
>> Policy Analyst
>> Access | AccessNow.org
>> E. deborah at accessnow.org <mailto:deborah at accessnow.org>
>> @deblebrown
>> PGP 0x5EB4727D
>


-- 
Warm Regards
Mishi Choudhary, Esq.
Director-International Practice
Software Freedom Law Center
1995 Broadway Floor 17
New York, NY-10023
(tel) 212-461-1912
(fax) 212-580-0898
www.softwarefreedom.org


Executive Director 
SFLC.IN
K-9, Second Floor
Jangpura Extn.
New Delhi-110014
(tel) +91-11-43587126 
(fax) +91-11-24323530
www.sflc.in

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