We need to tear down cyberwalls not on a mass basis, but on a targeted basis.
— Carly Fiorina, Republican presidential candidate, says Apple and Google should collaborate and cooperate with the government, which wants to be able to access encrypted customer information. The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard was speaking Thursday during a debate with some of the other GOP presidential candidates.
Apple and Google stepped up encrypting customer information after the Edward Snowden leaks revealed massive government spying. NSA documents stolen by Snowden, a former government tech contractor, showed that the government scooped up tech companies users information, including that of American users. The spying was supposed to target foreign terrorism suspects.
Law enforcement, government and spying officials have complained about the actions Apple, Google and other tech companies have taken to protect their users information. They say the safeguards make it tougher to fight crime and investigate threats to national security. But security experts and privacy advocates say allowing backdoors access for the U.S. government risks allowing others to access user information. At President Obama s Silicon Valley cybersecurity summit early this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke of a need to protect user information, saying the company owes customers the best protection that we can possibly provide.
In keeping with her position that companies should work with the government, Fiorina also urged support for CISA, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, which aims for sharing of information between companies and government in order to fight cyberattacks.
I do not believe that we need to wholesale destroy every American citizen s privacy in order to go after those that we know are suspect or already a problem, but yes, there is more collaboration required between private sector companies and the public sector, Fiorina said.
Photo of Carly Fiorina from AFP/Getty Images archives
