The NSA and Silicon Valley

[Commentary] I believe that the people who work at the National Security Agency are patriots. They devote their considerable intellects to preserve, protect, and defend the people of the United States. I wish their patriotism + brainpower would do the same for the US Constitution. But those issues are getting plenty of ink elsewhere.

My concern is more personal and local: The NSA’s version of patriotism is corroding Silicon Valley. Integrity of our products, creative freedom of talented people, and trust with our users are the casualties. The dolphin in the tuna net is us -- our industry, our work, and the social fabric of our community. Product integrity is doomed when the NSA involves itself in the product development process. The scope of NSA’s activity here is unknowable. But what I hear from founders and other investors is beyond my worst expectations. President Barack Obama’s Review Group on Intelligence learned enough about the matter to give it a prominent place in their Dec 12 report. A key recommendation: “the US Government should … not in any way subvert, undermine, weaken, or make vulnerable generally available commercial software.” It’s incredible to me that this needs to be said at all. Inside our companies and research centers, talented minds are being conscripted into surveillance. The freedom of talented people to work for whom they choose, building what they choose, for the purpose they choose is being deleted. Billions of people let Silicon Valley into their daily lives and they hug it close. They trust our products to find information, to get work done, to talk to each other, to buy and sell stuff, and to have fun. But now we are making trust withdrawals every day as people around the world learn how the NSA has woven surveillance, search, and seizure into and around our products.

Smart patriots of the NSA are struggling with a basic question: Of all the ways to get a critical job done, which ways line up with our founding values? The NSA’s answer is deadly to Silicon Valley’s life’s work. That is 100 percent unacceptable.

[Michael Dearing is founder of Harrison Metal. He is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley and a consulting associate professor at Stanford University.]

[Dec 30]