President Barrack Obama will meet Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings among others to discuss cyber security and the failures of the Obamacare website on Tuesday.
Representatives from Twitter, Etsy, Dropbox, Salesforce, Zynga, Sherpa Global, Comcast, LinkedIn, Microsoft and AT&T will also be attending the meeting.
The meeting gains importance because several companies shared their apprehension about sharing of consumer data with American administration.
A White House official said they will discuss how the tech sector can help the government avoid IT screw-ups like the healthcare.gov website rollout. They will also talk about national security and the impact of unauthorized intelligence disclosures.
The technology industry has protested some of the most high-profile National Security Agency snooping initiatives. Several prominent tech companies recently drafted a letter to Obama and Congress in opposition of the agency’s surveillance activities on their servers and systems.
According to media reports, the president will also talk to the CEOs about ways the administration can partner with technology companies to create more American jobs and promote income inequality.
On 9 December 9, AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo joined hands to propose principles for reforming government surveillance laws and practices. The companies also urged the President and the United States Congress to take the lead on reform with an open letter.
Its open letter said: “For our part, we are focused on keeping users’ data secure deploying the latest encryption technology to prevent unauthorized surveillance on our networks, and by pushing back on government requests to ensure that they are legal and reasonable in scope.”
“We urge the US to take the lead and make reforms that ensure that government surveillance efforts are clearly restricted by law, proportionate to the risks, transparent and subject to independent oversight,” the letter added.
“The security of users’ data is critical, which is why we’ve invested so much in encryption and fight for transparency around government requests for information. This is undermined by the apparent wholesale collection of data, in secret and without independent oversight, by many governments around the world. It’s time for reform and we urge the US government to lead the way,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google on 9 December.
