We are senior members of Google’s public policy and legal teams. AUA about the current status of US government surveillance law reform and how Google thinks about these issues.

Hi reddit,

We’re Richard Salgado (/u/r_salgado), Google’s director for law enforcement and information security, and David Lieber (/u/dlieber22), Google’s senior privacy policy counsel. We’ve spent a lot of time focusing on what surveillance law reform in the US should look like and how we can make sure we’re doing what we can to protect our users. We’re here to answer questions about what’s happening today with US surveillance reform and share with you Google’s perspective on government surveillance.

As many of you know, on June 1, Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act is set to expire. This is the provision that the NSA used to justify collecting the phone records of millions of Americans. Yesterday, a Federal appeals court ruled that Section 215 does not authorize bulk collection, which is great news. But doesn’t mean the end of Section 215 or of bulk collection. There are still other courts that can contradict or, in the case of the Supreme Court, reverse this decision, and one Senator has already introduced legislation to reauthorize Section 215. The good news, though, is that a bill called the USA Freedom Act is making its way through the House of Representatives. The bill makes strides toward ensuring surveillance is narrowly tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight.

It is a serious step toward real surveillance reform and an opportunity for Americans to speak up and let Congress know that it’s time for change.

If you'd like to learn more about what's at stake—and ways you can take action—visit: https://takeaction.withgoogle.com/page/s/usa-freedom

Ask us anything!

My Proof: r_salgado: http://imgur.com/Xcb0XXM dlieber22: http://imgur.com/0T5kwOz

Update: Signing off for now, reddit. Thanks for your time and great questions today. We’ll try to get back to some of you later when we have a little more time. If you want to get involved in the fight for real surveillance reform, visit https://takeaction.withgoogle.com/page/s/usa-freedom.

Comments: 222 • Responses: 1  • Date: 

MyFreakingAltAcct65 karma

HI! I'm a lifer, a "nexus guy", and I've been waiting for a thread like this for ages.

I've been banned from many Google Services for over a year for violating a TOS clause that wasn't in place at the time, but that conflicted with Wallet's TOS thereafter. This has left me heartbroken since, and I've fought it for hundreds of house, with written appeals, etc.

There have been MANY similar posts here that go unanswered, and users have no avenue for support for violating these terms. Wallet's teams that deal with these things aren't consumer facing, and it's above the call center's authority.

Facing what seems to be a lifetime ban is incredibly intense, and while it's slightly on topic, the policy office is the next place to turn. Users like me are looking for someone to speak with to try to resolve these issues in time. Can I get in touch with someone in your office about these issues?

See this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/google/comments/2zfjm9/dear_google_employees_with_the_blocked_wallet/

GoogleTakeAction33 karma

Sorry to hear that. I'll see what we can do. Send me a private message.