Pantone 50th Anniversary Products
September 11, 2013
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This afternoon, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will sit down for "fireside chats" on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, one of the largest technology conferences in the world.
As heads of two of the largest Internet media companies in the world, Mayer and Zuck will now have a global stage on which to potentially address the heaping concerns about privacy, surveillance, and personal data that have surfaced as a result of leaked documents via former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which among other things indicate that the NSA forced Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook to fork over user information and activity data in secret.
Two days ago, both Facebook and Yahoo joined Google and Microsoft in suing the U.S. government for not allowing their companies to disclose more information about the NSA’s requests to spy on their users. Perhaps this inevitable action was spurred by the executives’ upcoming public appearances at Disrupt? Regardless, I think the NSA and privacy should be the topic of discussion for the two at today’s event.
Here are the five questions I would like to see Marissa and Zuck respond to:
1) Do you believe the NSA’s spying actions within your systems have been legitimate and justified?
2) How much of a fight did you put up when the NSA started asking you for user data in secret?
3) Much of the public backlash against the NSA comes from court rulings saying that the U.S. Constitution (backed by unfortunately vague passages in the U.S. Bill of Rights) implicitly grants citizens the right to privacy. These documents were written in a pre-mass communication era, and are interpreted in ways that have led to confusion and controversy today. If you could rewrite the Bill of Rights in a 21st century context, what would you change or clarify?
4) Should Snowden be prosecuted?
5) What are you going to do about the security/encryption holes in your infrastructure that have now been revealed?
6) Zuck: It’s been reported that you don’t believe in privacy. How do you feel, personally, in light of recent events, about privacy today?
7) Where will you draw the line on your users’ privacy in the future?
Wired recently wrote that tech companies may soon go to war with the government over surveillance. I have the feeling both Ms. Mayer and Mr. Zuckerberg each want to talk to some degree about this issue, and I hope TechCrunch interviewers press them on the hard questions. If anyone can stand up to the NSA and help clear the air, it just might be the technology companies that power so much of our web.
P.S. Marissa, Mark: If they don’t ask you those things, but you’d like to respond yourself, feel free to do so in the comments. Or message me on Facebook. 🙂
What do you want to ask Marissa and Zuck?
via 7 Questions For Marissa & Zuck On The NSA And Privacy | LinkedIn.
