Google on Tuesday joined a coalition of more than 5,700 websites that are protesting the National Security Agency, endorsing specific legislation to reform and curb spying.
Google endorsed the USA Freedom Act, a sweeping proposal to limit NSA surveillance programs, according to a company blog post published early this morning. Along with other tech giants, Google had already shown support for the legislation in October.
See also: Twitter Readies for Transparency Fight Despite NSA Deal
"We strongly believe that government surveillance programs should operate under a legal framework that is rule-bound, narrowly tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight," wrote Susan Molinari, Google's vice president for public policy.
The USA Freedom Act, introduced by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), would end the NSA bulk telephone metadata collection program, force the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court to publish decisions that have broad policy implications, and put a stop to what critics of the NSA call "loopholes" that allow the agency to indirectly target Americans' communications.
Civil liberties groups and tech companies like Reddit, Tumblr and Mozilla, have marked Tuesday as "The Day We Fight Back" — an event calling on citizens to take part and support surveillance reform. In addition to Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, put a large banner to promote the protest on their joint website.
Google also renewed its support for reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), a decades-old law that governs email privacy.
"There’s more that can be done as we consider appropriate reforms to government surveillance laws," Molinari wrote. "Congress should update [ECPA] to require governmental entities to obtain a warrant before they can compel online companies to disclose the content of users’ communications."
ECPA reform has been in the works for months, with strong support from civil liberties groups, and the public alike. More than 100,000 people have signed a White House Petition asking for ECPA reform. But so far, it hasn't happened.
"We will continue to press Congress to adopt these important measures," Molinari wrote, "which would represent significant progress in the broader effort to reform government surveillance laws."
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.