Surveillance Surveillance programs prompt start-up entry into privacy protection market

Revelations of the surveillance programs of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have sparked technical innovations, legal challenges, and pursuits of political reforms in the United States and Britain. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, along with other leading technology firms, have been implementing new policies to rebuild users’ confidence after disclosure that the NSA is capable of accessing the companies’ servers.

At users’ requests, some companies have joined legal calls for the government to release information about NSA surveillance practices.

The Guardian reports that technology firm Lavabit, a secure e-mail provider used by Edward Snowden, ceased operation after the U.S. government requested a back door access into its systems. The founder of Lavabit, Ladar Levison, wrote on the company’s Web site: “I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit.”

Silent Circle, another communication encryption firm, ended its e-mail service operations to prevent government spying.

The withdrawal from the market by a few secure e-mail service providers has prompted new startups. Mailpile recently crowdsourced more than $160,000 to build its encrypted mail software and keep data storage away from American servers. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a U.S. government entity responsible for setting required security and encryption levels, has announced a full review of its standards to restore industry trust following concerns that the NSA had  influenced the organization’s guidance.

The Guardian notes that the revelation of a classified court order against Verizon to release a collection of phone records of Verizon customers has led to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits by two non-profits, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Electronic Privacy Information Center. The lawsuits has led to the declassification of hundreds of pages revealing secret court rulings governing the Verizon court order, and occasions in which the court had found parts of the NSA program unconstitutional.

In the United Kingdom, a group of privacy and freedom of expression groups, including Open Rights Group, English PEN, and Big Brother Watch, have begun to challenge the GCHQ at the European Court of Human Rights. The political reaction in Britain has been minimal compared to the United States. The British parliament debated the limits of GCHQ surveillance with the leaders of all three main parties, all of which are advocating reform of GCHQ’s oversight.

In the United States, Represntative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin), has proposed the USA Freedom Act to limit the collection of data by the NSA and other intelligence agencies, increase transparency of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, provide businesses the ability to release information regarding FISA requests, and create an independent constitutional advocate to argue cases before the FISC. Sensenbrenner helped craft the USA Patriot Act, the bill in which the NSA cites when seeking court approval for data collection.

Sensenbrenner’s proposed bill currently has at least 102 co-supporters, evenly split between 51 Republicans and 51 Democrats.