Tech employees vow not to help Trump
surveil Muslims, deport immigrants
Send a link to a friend
[December 14, 2016]
By Dustin Volz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 200
employees of technology companies including Alphabet Inc's Google,
Twitter Inc and Salesforce pledged on Tuesday to not help U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump's administration build a data registry to
track people based on their religion or assist in mass deportations.
Drawing comparisons to the Holocaust and the internment of Japanese
Americans during World War II, the employees signed an open letter at
neveragain.tech rebuking ideas floated by Trump during the campaign
trail. The protest, which began with about 60 signatures but had more
than tripled within hours of publication, comes a day before several
technology company executives are due to meet with the real-estate
developer in New York City.
"We are choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans,
immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by
the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies," reads
the letter, signed by a mix of engineers, designers and business
executives.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Dec/14/images/ads/current/flossies_sda_CHRISTMAS_2016.png)
It continues: "We refuse to build a database of people based on their
Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs. We refuse to facilitate
mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable."
The letter vows to not participate in creating databases of identifying
information for the U.S. government on the basis of race, religion or
national origin, to minimize the collection or retention of data that
could facilitate such targeting and to oppose any misuse of data at
their respective organizations considered illegal or unethical.
Trump clashed with Silicon Valley on several issues during the campaign,
including immigration, government surveillance and encryption, and his
victory last month alarmed many companies who feared he might follow
through on his pledges.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/121416pics/news_e5.jpg)
President-elect Donald
Trump speaks at a "Thank You USA" tour rally in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, U.S. December 9, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Dec/14/images/ads/current/watkins_lda_CHRISTMAS_2016.png)
Those concerns have not been assuaged in recent weeks, as Trump has
said he intends to nominate individuals to senior posts in his
administration who favor expanding surveillance programs.
Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Larry Page, Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook,
Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Amazon.com
Inc CEO Jeff Bezos and Oracle Corp CEO Safra Catz are among those
expected to attend the summit with Trump's transition team,
according to two technology industry sources.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment
regarding the open letter.
(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Dec/14/images/ads/current/ccaonline_lda050208.png) |