WASHINGTON – The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the global voice for the tech sector and its leading companies, issued the following statement from President and CEO Dean Garfield celebrating the Senate’s vote to pass the bipartisan USA Freedom Act and encouraged President Barack Obama to sign the bill into law. The surveillance reforms and transparency provisions contained in the bill have been a top priority for the technology sector:

"Meaningful surveillance reform has been a top priority for the technology sector. We thank the Senators and Members of Congress who voted to pass this bill that effectively ends indiscriminate bulk collection of data and brings needed transparency to the process by allowing tech companies to report information about the government orders they receive for access to data. This bill is a critical step in restoring America’s reputation as the leader in protecting the privacy and security of user data.”

“We urge the President to sign this bill into law in order to restore consumers’ confidence in the privacy of their personal data stored and transmitted through the technology we rely upon in our everyday lives. That confidence is critical to more than just our companies, it is needed to halt attempts around the world to undermine the open and borderless Internet that our innovation economy relies upon to create jobs and drive economic growth."

In a letter sent to Senators today before the vote, ITI informed lawmakers it considered the USA Freedom Act a key vote for the tech industry, calling on the Senate to pass the reforms contained in the bill “…without delay in order to restore the public’s trust in our sector, protect the open and borderless internet, and ensure the continued vitality of our innovation economy and the growth it creates here in the U.S.”

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Related [Surveillance Reform, Data & Privacy]