Surveillance - “We need to know”

We the undersigned civil society groups, trade associations, companies and investors are supporters of the free and open Internet. We are writing to urge that intelligence surveillance practices be reformed by limiting the scope of surveillance and by substantially enhancing the privacy protections, oversight, and accountability mechanisms that govern that surveillance. Recent disclosures regarding intelligence surveillance activity raise important concerns about the privacy and security of communications. This surveillance has already eroded trust that is essential to the free flow of information and to the exercise of human rights and civil liberties both in the United States and around the world. To rebuild trust, we urge that the U.S. government act expeditiously to: - allow companies to be much more transparent about the number and type of surveillance demands they receive; - be much more transparent itself about the surveillance demands it makes, the surveillance activities in which it engages, and the legal bases for both; - focus intelligence collection on terrorists, spies and other agents of foreign powers, rather than on everyone else; and - ensure that its surveillance practices honor both Constitutional and human rights. Toward this end, we welcome introduction in the House and Senate of the USA FREEDOM Act – legislation which promotes these goals. We oppose legislation that codifies sweeping bulk collection activities. We look forward to working with you on the USA FREEDOM Act and other legislation designed to protect the privacy of Internet users while permitting appropriately targeted intelligence surveillance necessary to protect against terrorism. Sincerely,

Nonprofit Organizations

- Access - Advocacy for Principled Action in Government - AIDS Policy Project - American Association of Law Libraries - American Booksellers Foundation for Free - Expression - American Library Association - American Civil Liberties Union - Arab American Institute - Association of Research Libraries - Center for Democracy and Technology - Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights - Center for National Security Studies - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in - Washington - Coalition Against Unsolicited E-mail - Competitive Enterprise Institute - The Constitution Project - Consumer Action - Council on American-Islamic Relations - Cyber Privacy Project - Defending Dissent Foundation - Demand Progress - DownsizeDC.org - Electronic Frontier Foundation - First Amendment Coalition - Freedom House - Free Press Action Fund - Freedom of the Press Foundation - Freedom to Read Foundation - FreedomWorks - Foundation for Innovation and Internet Freedom - Global Network Initiative - Government Accountability Project - Human Rights Watch - Liberty Coalition - OpenTheGovernment.org - Open Technology Institute - National Association of Criminal Defense - Lawyers - National Coalition Against Censorship - National Security Counselors - Public Knowledge - OpenMedia.org - Personal Democracy Media - Project on Government Oversight - Reporters Without Borders - Republican Liberty Caucus - Rutherford Institute - TechFreedom - Texas Liberty Foundation

Companies and Trade Organizations

- Automattic Inc. - CloudFlare - Computer and Communications Industry Assoc. - CREDO Mobile - Data Foundry - DreamHost - World Press Freedom Committee - Dropbox - DuckDuckGo - Evoca - Golden Frog - Hewlett-Packard Company - Internet Infrastructure Coalition - Meetup - Mozilla - NetChoice - NY Tech Meetup - Reddit - ServInt - Sonic.net - SpiderOak - Tumblr - Twilio

Investors

- Domini Social Investments - New Atlantic Ventures This open letter is available on https://cdt.org/letter/surveillance-reform.