Tech industry wants surveillance focus after ‘Big Data’ report

The tech industry is calling on the Obama Administration to focus on limiting government access to online data after a White House report focused on commercial users of consumer data.

Tech companies and trade groups applauded the White House’s “Big Data” report -- which largely focused on how companies collect and use large amounts of consumer data -- but encouraged President Obama to focus on reforming national security and law enforcement surveillance. Specifically, members of the tech industry focused on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), a 1986 law that allows law enforcement officials to access stored emails without a warrant. ‘Now that the Administration has issued its report, it should turn its attention to the most pressing privacy priorities facing American consumers by working to adopt ECPA reform with no exceptions and to reform the government’s surveillance laws and practices,” Internet Association CEO Michael Beckerman said. Beckerman’s group includes Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and Amazon. Ed Black, CEO of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, also called for quick action on ECPA reform. “ECPA reform is ready for action now,” he said in a statement, asking Congress to ensure “that the standard of protection for online content, such as email in the cloud, is consistent with that afforded in the physical world.” Black’s trade group includes Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and FourSquare.