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Apple, Google, AT&T Meet Secretly With Obama To Discuss Secret Spying

Obama meeting
Another Obama meeting that probably looked similar. The White House

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google tech guru Vint Cerf, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and other tech executives and civil liberties leaders met with Obama yesterday to discuss the country's spying programs, POLITICO's Tony Romm reports.

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The meeting was off the record. And, already, privacy advocates are blasting the companies for attending a secret meeting to discuss secret spying.

(Not to get all Big Brother here, but it seems perfectly reasonable to have a closed-door brainstorming session about how to improve the status quo before actually moving forward with any particular plan. Unless the tech companies are secretly plotting with Obama about to increase surveillance of their users and customers, which seems extremely unlikely, the idea that they would get together to share thoughts and concerns makes sense.)

The White House has had other meetings like this recently to discuss the country's surveillance programs, which have come under fire since National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden released documents showing that the U.S. government keeps electronic records of pretty much everything. 

Nobody's commenting yet on what was discussed yesterday.

Barack Obama
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