Internet Infrastructure Coalition Statement on NSA Review Panel

Washington, DC – Internet Infrastructure Coalition Co-Founder and Board Chairman Christian Dawson today released the following statement discussing the expected White House announcement of the NSA review panel:

“It is disappointing that despite previously stating he wanted  more transparency when it comes to our intelligence gathering, the President has named a group of Washington insiders that are all former government officials to the panel tasked with reviewing NSA programs. The Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) has stressed the need for a multistakeholder approach to this conversation, and we hope that this panel will listen to the concerns of all parties. 

“We have seen the economic impact these NSA programs are having, as non-U.S. companies are cancelling contracts and cutting back their use of American cloud computing services – to the potential tune of $35 billion lost in revenue for the U.S. cloud computing industry over the next three years. 

“Senator Franken, Representative Lofgren and others have submitted legislation to address these issues.  The i2Coalition urges this panel to put forth similar common-sense conclusions to increase transparency and protect privacy when it comes to the NSA’s intelligence gathering.”