Tech CEOs Meet With Obama for “Honest Talk” About NSA

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a handful of other CEOs had an “honest talk” with President Barack Obama at a hastily arranged meeting to discuss Silicon Valley’s continued unhappiness with US government surveillance practices.

White House officials characterized the meeting as a “continued dialogue” on the surveillance issue, but it appeared to be a direct reaction to a blistering post the Facebook co-founder published last week criticizing the administration’s efforts thus far to change the National Security Agency’s data collection practices. Zuckerberg “brought his concerns about government surveillance directly to the president today” and the CEOs had “an honest talk about government intrusion on the Internet and the toll it is taking on people’s confidence in a free and open Internet,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement after the meeting. “While the US government has taken helpful steps to reform its surveillance practices, these are simply not enough,” the statement continued. Several other tech companies with CEOs at the meeting declined to comment, including Netflix and Google. White House officials said President Obama “reiterated his administration’s commitment to taking steps that can give people greater confidence that their rights are being protected while preserving important tools that keep us safe.”