SAN
FRANCISCO -- In a column here last month, I urged the technology
industry to take the lead on improving privacy protections for its
users, rather than looking to Washington, D.C., for leadership.
After President Obama's speech on the subject Friday, let's hope Silicon Valley CEOs get the message.
It's
not just that Obama disappointed Internet privacy advocates by failing
to suggest any meaningful reform of the National Security Agency's
sweeping surveillance practices.
Within his speech, he effectively
threw the U.S. tech industry under the bus by reminding everyone
companies in the private sector -- not the government -- collects its
electronic information in the first place.
"Corporations of all
shapes and sizes track what you buy, store and analyze our data, and use
it for commercial purposes," the president said. "That's how those
targeted ads pop up on your computer and your smartphone periodically."
I
have to wonder how big a grimace that statement drew from Google CEO
Larry Page or Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose companies collect gobs
of that kind of information.
What the president said in that quote above isn't new, of course.
In
fact, it echoes what privacy advocates have long said, and the argument
made in last month's column: That the companies should take the lead on
bolstering privacy protections precisely because it is their customer
data the NSA is scanning.
Yet those previous arguments have
nowhere near the power or reach of a statement made by the President
from a podium within the U.S. Justice Department.
If a spate of
data breaches and thousands of annoying pop-up ads weren't enough to
discourage U.S. consumers from sharing more data online, they now have
an official warning from the top to remind them of its dangers.
Not content with stopping there, the president then went a step further to damage the industry's reputation on privacy.
"There
is a reason why BlackBerrys and iPhones aren't allowed in the White
House situation room," Obama said, adding a reminder the U.S. government
doesn't consider them safe from snooping by foreign governments.
How's that for a ringing endorsement?
Obama's
statement may not mean much to BlackBerry, which has already been
turned into a niche smartphone maker by market leaders Apple and Samsung
Electronics.
But it may be rich fodder for any foreign government agency or multinational corporation now weighing a big iPhone purchase.
The president might as well have said, "Even we can't protect our iPhone communication."
Ouch!
I can almost hear Apple CEO Tim Cook saying sarcastically, "Thank you, Mr. President!"
The
president's speech came even as some in Europe are calling for laws
that would require Internet companies that serve consumers there to
locate their servers in EU countries -- which have tougher privacy laws
than the U.S.
Although such a move probably won't help much in
protecting user privacy, as new revelations have revealed both the scope
and sophistication of NSA spying, the point of those statements should
not be lost on U.S. tech companies.
All this comes amid mounting
evidence the privacy uproar is hurting the business of U.S. hardware
makers -- something else reported by this column before Silicon Valley leaders warned the president about it.
Now
that the president has clearly signaled U.S. government policy will
continue to favor surveillance over privacy, it's time for U.S. tech
companies to overhaul their data collection practices -- to protect
their businesses and users.
John Shinal has covered tech
and financial markets for 15 years at Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, the San
Francisco Chronicle, Dow Jones MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal Digital
Network and others. Follow him on Twitter: @johnshinal.
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Obama throws tech companies under the bus
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