[Infowarrior] - Obama to Meet With Tech Giants Over Surveillance, Obamacare

[Richard Forno]

Obama to Meet With Tech Giants Over Surveillance, Obamacare

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/12/16/obama-to-meet-with-tech-giants-over-surveillance-obamacare/?mod=WSJ__MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, facing growing pressure from Silicon Valley, will meet Tuesday with executives from Google Inc.GOOG +1.14%, Facebook Inc.FB +0.91% and other technology and telecommunications giants to discuss their concerns about America’s surveillance operations.

According to the White House, Mr. Obama will also meet with the executives to talk about progress with the troubled online federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, and ways the government and technology industry can partner to boost economic growth.

The meeting comes a week after a group of technology companies jointly penned a letter to lash out at the Obama administration for collecting information on Americans. The companies said they wanted to see greater oversight of the government’s surveillance operations and limits on the government’s authority to compel companies to disclose data about their customers.

The letter followed a wave of disclosures about U.S. spying operations by Edward Snowden, a former government contractor now in Russia. The president will also talk about the national security concerns prompted by the leaks and their effect on the economy.

The administration has been reviewing U.S. spying operations and considering steps to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans. Last week, a presidential task force submitted to the White House more than 40 recommendations to overhaul the National Security Agency. Mr. Obama’s chief spokesman, Jay Carney, said the White House was reviewing the report and would make public the full report in January.

All told, 15 executives are expected at the meeting including Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Netflix Inc. Chief Executive Reed Hastings and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. 

	• Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
	• Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
	• Chad Dickerson, CEO, Etsy
	• Reed Hastings, Co-Founder & CEO, Netflix
	• Drew Houston, Founder & CEO, Dropbox
	• Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo!
	• Burke Norton, Chief Legal Officer, Salesforce
	• Mark Pincus, Founder, Chief Product Officer & Chairman, Zynga
	• Shervin Pishevar, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Sherpa Global
	• Brian Roberts, Chairman & CEO, Comcast
	• Erika Rottenberg, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, LinkedIn
	• Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook
	• Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google
	• Brad Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Microsoft


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