Some of the largest Internet companies in the world have joined forces, in order to persuade the U.S. government to reform its surveillance and intelligence oversight policies, calling action against Government privacy laws.
AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo authored an open letter to Washington, stating that:
“The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution. This undermines the freedoms we all cherish. It’s time for a change.”
Although this is a big step forward from the private sector, there is still a long wait ahead until the U.S. Government ensures that data stored within the U.S. is as secure as it is here in the United Kingdom. Not only does the government need to reform the U.S. PATRIOT Act (and probably the FISC) there are also a number of policies that need to be questioned, including giving the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence the ability, and indeed willingness, to change their oversight of surveillance activities – at home and abroad.
The group suggests five key principles for the government to act upon:
- Limiting Governments’ authority to collect users’ information,
- Oversight and accountability,
- Transparency about government demands,
- Respecting the free flow of information,
- Avoiding conflicts among governments.
In order to securely protect data, we currently recommend that any solution includes the following: UK Hosting from ISO 27001:2013 compliant data centres, Data Encryption (both at rest and in transit), Audit tools and Private encryption keys. Nimbox is proud to offer all of this, and more!
Please feel free to contact a member of the team if you would like to know more about the Nimbox solution by calling +44 (0)3454 75 75 74 or by emailing hello@nimbox.co.uk.
