Constitutional Law

Tell Google Not to Enter Into an Agreement With the NSA

By Ateqah Khaki, National Security Project

Yesterday, The Washington Post reported that Google — the world's largest Internet search company — is negotiating an information-sharing agreement with the National Security Agency (NSA) — the world's largest network for routine, mass communications surveillance.

The partnership is supposed to help protect Google's networks, but the ramifications of companies like Google working with the NSA are frightening.

The NSA — a component of the Department of Defense — is an intelligence collection agency with few effective checks against abuse, and no public oversight of its activities. The NSA sucks up the equivalent of the contents of the Library of Congress every six to eight hours, every single day. In the last decade, the NSA's dragnet, suspicionless surveillance has targeted everyday Americans, in violation of the law and the Constitution. (To lean more about NSA spying, download our fact sheet on 'America's Surveillance Society').

If companies like Google think they need the government's help to secure their networks, then a civilian agency needs to step up to the task. Cybersecurity for the American people should not be handed over to a military spy agency, one that is insulated from public oversight and has a history of secretly exploiting vulnerabilities, rather than fixing them.

Concerned? You can take action today by sending a letter to Google, letting them know that you object to such a deal and value your privacy online.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on February 05, 2010 (boomark / email).