Facebook, Google bosses meet with Barack Obama over internet surveillance concerns

United States president Barack Obama has met with bosses from Facebook, Google and other internet giants to discuss plans to overhaul the surveillance practices of America's spy agencies. Those attending included Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who says he last week called the president personally to express frustration with the vast online intelligence dragnets. A White House official says the meeting is part of Mr Obama's continuing dialogue on the issues of privacy, technology and intelligence. "The president reiterated his administration's commitment to taking steps that can give people greater confidence that their rights are being protected, while preserving important tools that keep us safe," the White House said. But Mr Zuckerberg, a public critic of government data gathering practices, says more needs to be done. "While the US government has taken helpful steps to reform its surveillance practices, these are simply not enough," he said through a spokesperson. "People around the globe deserve to know that their information is secure and Facebook will keep urging the US government to be more transparent about its practices and more protective of civil liberties," he said. Some of the largest US technology companies, including Google, its rival Yahoo, social networking site Twitter and others, have been pushing for more transparency, oversight and restrictions to the US government's gathering of intelligence. Facing criticism for their own collection practices involving users' data, the companies have also sought to clarify their relationships with US law enforcement and spying agencies since June, when leaks to the news media by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began to show the extent of US spying capabilities. Mr Obama in January outlined a series of limited reforms to NSA data gathering, banning eavesdropping on the leaders of friendly or allied nations and proposing some changes to how NSA treats Americans' phone data.