I wanted to highlight a couple responses to Senator Dodd's visit to Google HQ yesterday in Mountain View, California. In his speech, Dodd called on Google to pledge to stand up to the Bush Administration when it comes to protecting the privacy of their customer data, as well as take active steps to expand free access to information abroad, including closing Google.cn, a search engine that censors many results on subjects deemed controversial by the Chinese government. In many regards, Dodd's speech was not what people expected. It wasn't a laundry list of technology policies, as other candidates have given. Rather it was a moment where Dodd spoke truth to one of the most influential technology companies in the world and called on them to actively do good with their power.
Sarah Lai Stirland of Wired has a similar take:
[T]his speech is one of the very few presidential campaign trail talks that acknowledges the pivotal role that massive data storage is now playing in our society, and the risk it poses to our privacy.
Dodd's talk alluded to the crucial, and wider point that it's the private sector that controls much of citizens' data in the modern world -- not the government.
So it seemed entirely appropos -- yet entirely unusual -- that the presidential candidate would challenge and call on Google to provide policy solutions and ideas on how to protect user privacy in the modern world.
Aiming high is nothing new for Chris Dodd and this speech was yet another example of how Dodd has used his platform as a presidential candidate to offer bold leadership.
One of the reasons for giving the speech Senator Dodd gave yesterday is that Google does have a good, if not perfect, record of standing up for privacy issues, as well as a very impressive record of philanthropy and progressive development in energy policy. That is, though this speech wasn't geared towards telling Google what they want to hear, there was and remains a real expectation that Dodd's earnest call for leadership would be well received by Google.
Reading the Google Public Policy Blog today, it seems like Dodd's speech was very well received by its audience, which appreciated the challenge put forth to them.
Dodd’s speech centered on his outspoken opposition to retroactive immunity for telephone companies who allegedly assisted President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. He has taken to the Web to make his case against letting the companies off the hook, including through this YouTube video with whistleblower Mark Klein, the retired AT&T technician who uncovered “a switch [at AT&T’s facilities] that channeled Internet traffic culled from millions of living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and offices across the nation to a secret room operated by the NSA.” Many lawsuits have been brought against AT&T and other carriers to stop this alleged cooperation with government surveillance of Americans, but immunity could stop these cases in their tracks.
While pledging to uphold Americans' constitutional liberties if elected president, Dodd also impressed upon Googlers that it is our responsibility to protect these sacred liberties as well. As he put it, Google's commitment to the free flow of information and powerful, speech-enabling technology provides the foundation for "a transformative power both vast and unprecedented - the capability to not only transform society but the very notion of society. Of community. Of democracy." At the same time, he challenged Google to do more to defend free expression and privacy both in the U.S. and abroad, directly questioning our decision to operate in Internet-restricting countries like China.
I look forward to seeing more reaction from the tech world, the human rights world, and from Google itself. Hopefully they will continue to respond well to the challenges Dodd put to them yesterday on the free access to information and the protection of private information from all prying eyes, be they the US government or any other government.
Leadership means saying what you believe to be true, even when people may not be ready to hear it. I'm proud of Senator Dodd's decision to go to Google and ask more of them, just as I'm optimistic that the audience there is ready to join Dodd in his continued fight to protect our civil liberties at home while restoring our reputation abroad.
Update:
A Tibetan blogger, writing at Students for a Free Tibet's official blog, has this to say about Dodd's call to Google: "Other candidates should stand with Senator Dodd in upholding the value of free speech and free information."
