The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has withdrew its membership from the Global Network Initiative claiming that it has no confidence in other members of the initiative that they can speak about privacy, surveillance and security following Snowden revelations.
In a letter EFF stated that it cannot have its name listed next to other GNI members as they have been blocked by government from sharing “crucial information about how the US government has meddled with these companies’ security practices.”
The EFF notes in the letter that it has help define the founding principles of GNI; co-ordinated the opposition of UK’s Communications Data Bill in 2011; collaborated with other GNI members to analyze GNI’s technical and policy aspects; and released a white paper addressing free-speech issues related to account deactivation and removal.
The EFF states that it can no longer stand by what had been one of GNI’s strongest points and significant achievement – “third-party privacy and freedom of expression assessments of service providers, including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.”
The EFF however noted that it will continue to provide guidance to the Initiative and engage companies directly not as a member of the GNI, but as an external organization.
The resignation letter can be found here.
