Obama Discusses Cybersecurity with Tech Site Re/Code After California Summit
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NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Obama sat down for a wide-ranging interview with tech website Re/code on Friday after the White House cybersecurity summit at Stanford University.
During the interview, Obama acknowledged “tensions with Silicon Valley,” because he is of the belief that “you own your data…I think I own my data,” whereas in Silicon Valley, “folks are quite keen on talking about government intrusion and some of them are intrusive as well.” Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the White House summit Friday, however, Yahoo’s Marissa Meyer, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Eric Schmidt all sent security executives in their stead.
Obama signed an executive order on Friday creating a process by which private companies would share cybersecurity-related information with the government in order to increase safety. A number of corporations agreed to use the guidelines provided by the White House.
The president said he didn’t blame companies that use encyrption data to prevent the government from acquiring users’ data, saying that “I think they are properly responding to a market demand.”
Regarding the hack of Sony Entertainment last year, Obama said that “It’s not like North Korea is particularly good at this, but look at the damage they can do.” That hack resulted in the removal of the film The Interview from theaters. “China and Russia are very good,” Obama added, “Iran is good.”
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