Executives from the nation’s top technology firms met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday and urged him to reform the nation’s surveillance programs, which have faced scrutiny following the revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
“We appreciated the opportunity to share directly with the President our principles on government surveillance that we released last week and we urge him to move aggressively on reform,” the technology companies said in joint statement following the meeting.
The White House said the meeting was an opportunity for the President to hear directly from the tech CEOs on national intelligence policy.
“The President made clear his belief in an open, free, and innovative internet and listened to the group’s concerns and recommendations, and made clear that we will consider their input as well as the input of other outside stakeholders as we finalize our review of signals intelligence programs,” a White House statement read.
A federal judge on Monday ruled that the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone metadata is likely unconstitutional.
