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 Obama and senior aides meet with six tech executives to discuss
issues surrounding intelligence, technology and privacy, the White
House said in a statement following the meeting. Executives were
seen entering the White House around 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) and
leaving more than two hours later.
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, the world's largest
Internet search engine; Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of
Facebook, the world's biggest social network; and Reed Hastings,
chief executive officer of Netflix Inc, an online video streaming
service, were among those attending the meeting, the White House
said.
Other attendees are Aaron Levie and Drew Houston, chief executive
officers of two online storage and file-sharing companies Box and
Dropbox; and Alex Karp, chief executive officer of Palantir
Technologies, a data-mining company which is partly backed by the
CIA and whose clients include the National Security Agency.
The president sought to provide reassurances that the administration
is putting in place reforms to intelligence collection after
revelations of widespread collection of data stirred outrage.
"The president reiterated his administration's commitment to taking
steps that can give people greater confidence that their rights are
being protected while preserving important tools that keep us safe,"
the White House said.
But Facebook's Zuckerberg, a public critic of government data
gathering practices, said that more needed to be done.
"While the U.S. government has taken helpful steps to reform its
surveillance practices, these are simply not enough," he said
through a spokesperson.
"People around the globe deserve to know that their information is
secure and Facebook will keep urging the U.S. government to be more
transparent about its practices and more protective of civil
liberties," he said.
Obama in January outlined a series of limited reforms to NSA data
gathering, banning eavesdropping on the leaders of friendly or
allied nations and proposing some changes to how NSA treats
Americans' phone data.
The most sweeping program, collection of telephone "metadata," comes
up for reauthorization next week, on March 28.
Obama has asked Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S.
intelligence community to report back to him before that deadline on
how to preserve the necessary capabilities of the program, without
the government holding the metadata.
"FRUSTRATION OVER THE DAMAGE"
An industry source said invitations to Friday's meeting with Obama
were received on March 15, two days after Zuckerberg blasted U.S.
electronic surveillance practices in a widely read public post on
Facebook.
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"I've called President Obama to express my frustration over the
damage the government is creating for all of our future.
Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true
full reform," Zuckerberg wrote. Some of the largest U.S.
technology companies, including Google, its rival Yahoo Inc, social
networking site Twitter Inc and others, have been pushing for more
transparency, oversight and restrictions to U.S. government's
gathering of intelligence.
Facing criticism for their own collection practices involving users'
data, the companies have also sought to clarify their relationships
with U.S. law enforcement and spying agencies since June, when leaks
to the news media by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began to
show the extent of U.S. spying capabilities.
Media reports based on secret documents disclosed by Snowden have
detailed how the U.S. government may have tapped into communications
cables that link data centers owned by Google and Yahoo, and
intercepted user data.
The NSA has pushed back against the media reports that rely on
Snowden leaks, calling many of them inaccurate and saying the spying
programs are critical to U.S. national security.
Snowden is wanted in the United States on espionage charges and is
living in asylum in Russia.
Friday's meeting is not the first on the matter for Obama and the
tech industry leaders. In December, a larger group of tech
executives, including also Microsoft Corp, AT&T Inc and Apple Inc,
urged the administration to rein in the government's electronic
spying.
Executives from several other companies, including Yahoo and
LinkedIn Corp, were said to be unable to attend Friday's meeting
because of scheduling conflicts.
(Additional reporting by Mark Felsenthal and Jeff Mason;
editing by Ros Krasny, Stephen Powell, Mohammad Zargham and Lisa Shumaker)
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