[governance] Re: [bestbits] Fwd: Taking the Transparency Push Global

Wed Sep 25 17:24:36 EDT 2013

Hi Michael,

This is David Sullivan from GNI. There is no shortage of civil society
organizations (both GNI members and others) who are on these lists and have
been very active in pushing for transparency on surveillance and will have
their own responses to your question, but there are a couple of points I'd
like to make.

First, from GNI's point of view these transparency reforms are a
prerequisite to enable an informed debate about putting human rights at the
center of communications surveillance regimes. As we said in our
statement<http://globalnetworkinitiative.org/news/transparency-national-security-and-protecting-rights-online>back
in June,"We view such transparency reforms as necessary first steps in
examining
whether domestic law adequately protects the rights to privacy and freedom
of expression."

Secondly, our letters to the FOC governments complement the efforts of the
coalition that CDT has
organized<https://www.cdt.org/pr_statement/cdt-brings-together-major-internet-companies-advocates-demand-more-transparency-around->of
more than 60 companies, civil society organizations and other
stakeholders who have made a similar ask of the US government. Already
legislation has been introduced in response to that letter in both the
House and Senate. Those bills have not slowed momentum toward substantive
reform (momentum has been building in particular to address the bulk phone
records programs), rather they complement and reinforce those efforts.

Finally, yes there are definitely ways to "game the stats" in this realm
where we need to be very careful. For what it's worth, GNI has been very
careful to specify that both governments and companies should report not
just on the number of requests they make/receive, but also the number of
persons or accounts affected by those orders, to mitigate this concern.

All the best,
David

-- 
David Sullivan
Policy and Communications Director
Global Network Initiative <http://www.globalnetworkinitiative.org/>
Office: +1 202 741 5048
Mobile: +1 646 595 5373
PGP: 0x60D244AA
@David_MSullivan <https://twitter.com/David_MSullivan>

GNI has moved, please note our new address:
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Washington, DC 20036

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 4:23 PM, michael gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>wrote:

> Perhaps someone could enlighten me on this...****
>
> ** **
>
> I know that pursuing this is a major pre-occupation of various US Internet
> corps (Google, Facebook etc.) and I can see that getting this made public
> might help them get off the hook a bit (look how few the requests given the
> number of users we have/items we process etc.****
>
> ** **
>
> What I don't understand is why civil society should be interested in this
> at all since there seem to be an almost infinite number of ways of gaming
> this (according to various Snowden documents i.e. one reqyest covering all
> communications between x and xxxistan for the month of January)****
>
> ** **
>
> Surely CS is concerned with findings ways of managing these practices
> rather than getting better information on specific items of activity
> etc.etc.****
>
> ** **
>
> M****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net [mailto:
> bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net] *On Behalf Of *Carolina
> *Sent:* Wednesday, September 25, 2013 10:25 AM
> *To:* governance at lists.igcaucus.org; <bestbits at lists.bestbits.net>
> *Subject:* [bestbits] Fwd: Taking the Transparency Push Global****
>
> ** **
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone****
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> Begin forwarded message:****
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> *From:* Global Network Initiative <info at globalnetworkinitiative.org>
> *Date:* September 25, 2013, 11:31:28 AM EDT
> *To:* Carolina <carolina.rossini at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* *Taking the Transparency Push Global*
> *Reply-To:* Global Network Initiative <info at globalnetworkinitiative.org>**
> **
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> ** **
> GNI Writes to Governments Seeking Surveillance Transparency ****
>
> ** **
>
> The Global Network Initiative has written to the 21 governments in the
> Freedom Online Coalition<http://globalnetworkinitiative.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0783c5af752516db406e4edd7&id=420621a6ab&e=d7e996790e>,
> asking them to report on the requests they make for electronic
> communications surveillance and to make it legally possible for companies
> to report regularly to the public on the government requests that they
> receive from law enforcement as well as national security authorities.
>
> Read international news coverage of the letters:  ****
>
>    - Tech group asks 21 countries to disclose surveillance requests<http://globalnetworkinitiative.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0783c5af752516db406e4edd7&id=568a4500af&e=d7e996790e>
>    ****
>    - Surveillance du Net : une coalition demande aux gouvernements plus
>    de transparence<http://globalnetworkinitiative.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0783c5af752516db406e4edd7&id=755e7c4ce5&e=d7e996790e>
>    ****
>    - GNI向21个国家政府发出公开信，要求提高信息监控活动的透明度<http://globalnetworkinitiative.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=0783c5af752516db406e4edd7&id=c32c8a2adc&e=d7e996790e>
>    ****
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>   Multimedia****
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> GNI and the Telecommunications Industry Dialogue at the Stockholm
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> .****
>   More news****
>
>    - Presidential and Congressional Steps on Communication Surveillance
>    Programs<http://globalnetworkinitiative.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=0783c5af752516db406e4edd7&id=df4f5787a6&e=d7e996790e>
>    ****
>    - GNI Comments to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board<http://globalnetworkinitiative.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0783c5af752516db406e4edd7&id=2880ae504f&e=d7e996790e>
>    ****
>    - Executive Summary of GNI Telecoms report available in Arabic,
>    Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish<http://globalnetworkinitiative.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0783c5af752516db406e4edd7&id=fc14b178fe&e=d7e996790e>
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