Major Tech Companies Call For Greater Digital Due Process In Government Surveillance

AOL, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo have issued an open letter to Washington calling on politicians to reform government surveillance worldwide.

The organizations have outlined five principles that they believe encapsulate and are consistent with "global norms of free expression and privacy" and "the goals of ensuring that government law enforcement and intelligence efforts are rule-bound, narrowly tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight".

The principles are:

1. Limiting Governments' Authority to Collect Users' Information. No bulk downloads of information. Codification of limitations on the ability to compel service providers to disclose data. Limiting surveillance to specific, known users for lawful purposes.