Mozilla wants to make sure its users know the company is not
happy with the National Security Agency data collection efforts.
The company has added a stopwatching.us message on its Firefox launch page sporting
an icon of a security camera with a blinking red eye and the following message:
"Security and privacy are not optional. Stand with a broad coalition to
demand that the NSA stop watching us."
The agency has been in the spotlight after revelations it
was collecting massive amounts of phone records and online-use information.
In a letter to Congress, stopwatching.us, itself a massive
coalition of privacy and civil liberty groups including ACLU, the American
Library Association, Free Press, MoveOn.org and others, are calling for an investigation as well as
legislation to make blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone
records illegal, with violations subject to court action.
The U.S. Government on Friday charged Edward
Snowden, who leaked data about the blanket surveillance, with espionage.
WikiLeaks attorneys are advising Snowden as he seeks asylum from U.S.
prosecution for alleged violations of the Espionage Act.
