Washington Post: Tech Executives to Obama: NSA Spying Revelations are Hurting Business

Trillium recently filed a shareholder with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) which asks the company to publish a semi-annual report detailing how often they have shared information with U.S. or foreign governments and what type of customer information has been shared. In collaboration with New York State Common Retirement Fund, Trillium also co-filed a resolution a similar resolution with AT&T (NYSE: T).

The Washington Post is one of many media outlets that are reporting on the technology and telecommunication industries’ response to wide-spread and seemingly indiscriminate data collection by the U.S. and other governments.

Cecilia Kang and Ellen Nakashima write:

“…Silicon Valley has been a critical driver of the economic recovery and has long represented the face of American ingenuity around the world. Many of these companies say they are still trying to assess the damage caused by Edward Snowden’s leak of NSA documents showing their work with intelligence officials.

But some shareholders say Silicon Valley has been slow to recognize the reputational crisis that is developing around the world for these companies. ‘Verizon and AT&T are not managing this crisis effectively,” said Jonas Kron, director of shareholder advocacy at Trillium, an investment advisory firm. “Now is the time for these companies to demonstrate that they will protect user privacy.’”

You can read the entire article here.