**组织、主要科技公司以及包括谷歌、微软和苹果在内的大型公司联盟已致函奥巴马**，敦促其果断结束美国****局的大量元数据收集工作，该工作将于6月1日作为《爱国者法案》第215条的一部分到期。奥巴马已经敦促国会制定一个处理元数据的新框架，提议电信公司保留这些记录，只有在执法部门收到法庭命令时才交出。这项建议是一年前提出的。如果国会想继续允许**查阅这些记录——是的，很可能是这样——它必须在未来几个月内采取行动。

“必须有一个强有力的，明确的，有效的结束批量收集的做法。”

“根据美国爱国者法案，包括第215节记录管理局和第214节关于钢笔登记簿和陷阱与追踪装置的管理局，必须有一个强有力的、明确的、有效的终止批量收集的做法，”这些公司在今天发出的信中写道，这封信有近40多个团体签署在这些机构下进行的任何收集都应该有适当的保护措施，以保护隐私和用户的权利。”这封信的其他签名者包括维基媒体、Mozilla、电子前沿基金会、公共知识、沉默圈、ACLU和CloudFlare。

国会去年开始着手改革，但迄今为止，其努力已告失败。众议院通过了《美国自由法案》（usafreedom Act），该法案将结束**大量收集元数据的工作，而是让电话公司按照总统的要求处理。然而，参议院未能通过一项配套法案。接下来几个月发生的事情将对监控状态至关重要——上一次第215节获得批准时，它又被批准了四年。有人担心，爱国者法案可能仍然允许正在进行的元数据收集继续进行，即使该法案日落，但**表示，如果发生这种情况，它不打算继续该计划。

信的内容如下：

We the undersigned represent a wide range of privacy and human rights advocates, technology companies, and trade associati*** that hold an equally wide range of positi*** on the issue of surveillance reform. Many of us have differing views on exactly what reforms must be included in any bill reauthorizing USA PATRIOT Act Section 215, which currently serves as the legal basis for the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata and is set to expire on June 1, 2015. That said, our broad, diverse, and bipartisan coalition believes that the status quo is untenable and that it is urgent that Congress move forward with reform.

Together, we agree that the following elements are essential to any legislative or Administration effort to reform our nation’s surveillance laws:

• There must be a clear, strong, and effective end to bulk collection practices under the USA PATRIOT Act, including under the Section 215 records authority and the Section 214 authority regarding pen registers and trap & trace devices. Any collection that does occur under those authorities should have appropriate safeguards in place to protect privacy and users’ rights.

• The bill must contain transparency and accountability mechani**s for both government and company reporting, as well as an appropriate declassification regime for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court decisi***.

We believe addressing the above must be a part of any reform package, though there are other reforms that our groups and companies would welcome, and in some cases, believe are essential to any legislation. We also urge Congress to avoid adding new mandates that are controversial and could derail reform efforts.

It has been nearly two years since the first news stories revealed the scope of the United States’ surveillance and bulk collection activities. Now is the time to take on meaningful legislative reforms to the nation’s surveillance programs that maintain national security while preserving privacy, transparency, and accountability. We strongly encourage both the White House and Members of Congress to support the above reforms and oppose any efforts to enact any legislation that does not address them.