President Barack Obama wants companies to voluntarily share information about computer-network threats.
It is one step in a long effort to make companies as well as privacy and consumer advocates more comfortable with a proposed legislation that would offer participating companies liability protection, the White House said.
At the same time, Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt declined invitations to attend, according to the companies. They will send their top information security executives to the summit instead. Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is planning to attend.
Both privacy groups and Silicon Valley companies have said they would oppose the legislation unless reforms are first made to the NSA’s surveillance program.
Whether good or bad, this impending legislation is poised to activate a healthy debate, and we are looking forward to a similar debate in India and many other Asian countries as well.
