Apple junta-se a outras empresas para pedir reforma da NSA

A Apple juntamente com empresas como Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Facebook e Twitter vieram, numa página online, pedir a reforma do sistema de aquisição de dados por parte da National Security Agency dos EUA.


Na página, que foi inicialmente reportada pelo Wall Street Journal, pode ler-se os cinco pedidos feitos pelas gigantes tecnológicas para evitar situações como as reveladas por Edward Swonden durante este ano.

As cinco directrizes são:

• Limitar a possibilidade do governo aceder a dados de utilizadores;
• Supervisão e Responsabilidade;
• Transparência sobre os pedidos do Governo;
• Respeitar o livre fluxo de informação;
• Evitar o conflito entre governos.

Mais informações (em inglês) podem ser lidas aqui na parte final deste artigo:

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1. Limiting Governments’ Authority to Collect Users’ Information
2. Governments should codify sensible limitations on their ability to compel service providers to disclose user data that balance their need for the data in limited circumstances, users’ reasonable privacy interests, and the impact on trust in the Internet. In addition, governments should limit surveillance to specific, known users for lawful purposes, and should not undertake bulk data collection of Internet communications.
3. Oversight and Accountability
   Intelligence agencies seeking to collect or compel the production of information should do so under a clear legal framework in which executive powers are subject to strong checks and balances. Reviewing courts should be independent and include an adversarial process, and governments should allow important rulings of law to be made public in a timely manner so that the courts are accountable to an informed citizenry.
4. Transparency About Government Demands
   Transparency is essential to a debate over governments’ surveillance powers and the scope of programs that are administered under those powers. Governments should allow companies to publish the number and nature of government demands for user information. In addition, governments should also promptly disclose this data publicly.
5. Respecting the Free Flow of Information
   The ability of data to flow or be accessed across borders is essential to a robust 21st century global economy. Governments should permit the transfer of data and should not inhibit access by companies or individuals to lawfully available information that is stored outside of the country. Governments should not require service providers to locate infrastructure within a country’s borders or operate locally.
6. Avoiding Conflicts Among Governments
7. In order to avoid conflicting laws, there should be a robust, principled, and transparent framework to govern lawful requests for data across jurisdictions, such as improved mutual legal assistance treaty — or “MLAT” — processes. Where the laws of one jurisdiction conflict with the laws of another, it is incumbent upon governments to work together to resolve the conflict.