Apple, Google, Microsoft unite against NSA spying program

(Credit: USA Freedom Act letter)

The top tech companies are sharpening their blades in their battle with the National Security Agency. While they've been doggedly asking for transparency on the agency's mass surveillance program for months, they're now calling for reform.

Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, and AOL penned a letter (pdf) to the lead members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday urging the lawmakers to substantially reform the NSA surveillance practices. The companies also asked for additional oversight and accountability mechanisms for the spying programs.

"Transparency is a critical first step to an informed public debate, but it is clear that more needs to be done," the letter reads. "We urge the Administration to work with Congress in addressing these critical reforms that would provide much needed transparency and help rebuild the trust of Internet users around the world."

The NSA is one of the biggest surveillance and eavesdropping agencies in the US and was whistleblower Edward Snowden's workplace before he decided to leak some of the agency's top-secret documents to the press in June.

That document leak opened the public's eyes to the government's collection of data on US residents through both cellular records and metadata from Internet companies. Since Snowden's original leak, thousands more documents have surfaced. The NSA and the Obama administration have maintained that the surveillance program was carried out to protect Americans and track down foreign terrorists.

The letter sent by the tech companies "applauds" Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) who recently sponsored a bill called the USA Freedom Act. This bill has the goal of "ending eavesdropping, dragnet collection, and online monitoring" by the NSA and other government agencies.

Sensenbrenner is considered one of the architects of the Patriot Act, which the NSA often cites as a legal justification for its surveillance activities. However, Sensenbrenner is adamant that mass government spying wasn't the intention of the Patriot Act.

"We have to make a balance between security and civil liberties," Sensenbrenner told theAssociated Press in an interview last week. "And the reason the intelligence community has gotten itself into such trouble is they apparently do not see why civil liberties have got to be protected."

In their letter, the six tech giants echoed Sensenbrenner's sentiment.

"As companies whose services are used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, we welcome the debate about how to protect both national security and privacy interests and we applaud the sponsors of the USA Freedom Act for making an important contribution to this discussion," the letter reads.

Ever since the Snowden leak, these tech companies have been pushing for greater transparency from the US government. They have also been urging the government to allow them to publish detailed information on the number of national security-related government requests for user data they have received.

In their letter, the companies again reiterate their request to release more information to the public.These companies are looking to reassure their users that the NSA doesn't have unfettered access to their user data. At present, tech companies are only allowed to publish information on such requests in aggregate; they can't break down how many requests came from the NSA specifically.

"We also continue to encourage the Administration to increase its transparency efforts and allow us to release more information about the number and types of requests that we receive," the letter reads, "so that the public debate on these issues can be informed by facts about how these programs operate."

In other NSA reform news, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved a handful of surveillance reforms on Thursday in an 11-4 vote during a closed meeting, according to Politico. The text of the bill is not yet available, but most likely it would call for limits on government call-tracking and database queries.

Oracle executive pay deal again rejected by shareholders

Larry Ellison, Oracle founder. The company's growth has slowed in recent years as corporations move from installing software on their own machines to using cloud-based services. Photograph: Action Press/Rex Features

Oracle shareholders have rejected the company's pay practices for a second successive year, after founder Larry Ellison topped the league of America's best paid executives with a $78m (£49m) package in the most recent financial year.

A motion to approve executive pay at the annual meeting was defeated after 57% of shareholders voted against or abstained in a non-binding poll. Because Ellison owns more than 24% of the shares, an estimated 85% of the independent stockholders are thought to have joined the pay revolt.

Immediately after the meeting, shareholder activist group Change to Win called for the resignation of Bruce Chizen, who has chaired Oracle's compensation committee since 2011.

"Given the extent of investor opposition, Chizen must make room for fresh, independent thinking that can restore investor confidence in the board's linking of pay with corporate performance and strategy," said Dieter Waizenegger, director of the group's investment arm. "Further foot dragging risks a real governance crisis."

The UK's Railway Pension Investments joined Dutch fund PGGM and the California State Teachers' Retirement System in voting against the board after sending an open letter earlier this month raising "severe concerns about executive compensation and proper board accountability at Oracle".

The company's growth has slowed in recent years as corporations move from installing software on their own machines to using cloud-based services. Oracle's stock has risen 8% in the last year, but lags gains made by other US companies.

A number of funds and shareholder advisory group ISS also campaigned against the re-election of the directors. All board members were majority approved, but the company has yet to give a breakdown of the percentage of votes cast in their favour.

Last year, Oracle's pay policy was voted down by a majority 59%. The remuneration vote, known in America as "say on pay", is non-binding but few companies risk the wrath of shareholders two years running.

However, Oracle chairman Jeffrey Henley told the meeting on Thursday: "We believe that our current executive compensation is considerably performance driven."

At the event, Thomas McIntyre of the Trowel Trades fund put forward a motion for better information on how rewards for executives are measured.

"Without clarity from the board, shareholders are giving the board a blank cheque to pick whatever metrics and calculations it chooses," he said. "This is even more concerning because over the past several years the board has sat by despite persistent pay for performance misalignment. Our executives receive outsize rewards by average performance."

Oracle is one of only 12 of America's top 3000 public companies to have suffered more than one say on pay backlash, according to ISS. Others include the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch, whose chief executive Mike Jeffries was paid $4m in 2011 for agreeing to limit his use of the company jet.

UK manufacturing sector boosted by rising demand for exports

A steel works in Rotherham. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Britain's manufacturers enjoyed rising export demand and hired new workers in October, according to a survey.

The closely watched Markit/CIPS UK Manufacturing PMI report suggested export orders grew at their fastest pace in more than two years, although overall activity rose at a slightly softer pace.

Although manufacturing output remains well below the level enjoyed before the recession, it notched up its seventh straight month of improvement with a reading of 56.0. That was well above the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction and down slightly from 56.3 in September. Economists had forecast a reading of 56.1 in a Reuters poll.

The survey follows the latest official data showing the UK economy grew by 0.8% in the third quarter. With households under pressure from stagnant wages and rising bills and prices, there have been questions over whether that pace of growth can be maintained in the consumer-dependent UK economy. But economists said manufacturing could help drive overall growth.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at survey compilers Markit, said: "Despite only accounting for less than 11% of the economy, the current strength of growth seen in manufacturing means the sector will still provide a major boost to the economy in October, boding well for the strong pace of economic growth we saw in the second and third quarter being sustained into the fourth quarter.

"The survey suggests manufacturing output is growing at a quarterly rate of around 1%-1.5%."

But he also highlighted the challenges facing the government as it vows to shift economic dependence towards manufacturing and exports.

"Maintaining this solid expansion will be important if we are to see any real signs of the economy rebalancing, as manufacturing remains 9% smaller than its pre-crisis peak, while services have already closed the gap," added Dobson.

The survey suggested manufacturing employment rose for the sixth consecutive month as total new orders for the sector continued to rise. Within that, export orders increased at the fastest pace since February 2011 as companies reported growing demand from Asia, the US, mainland Europe, Ireland, the Middle East and Russia.

EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, welcomed the export growth.

"Manufacturers' focus on developing new products and services to support their expansion into new export markets is making a strong contribution to this trend," said the EEF's chief economist, Lee Hopley.

"Buoyant output across all sectors and an upbeat view of demand at home and in overseas markets bodes well for a sustained recovery in the fourth quarter and into 2014. While we expect to see a mild contraction in output overall for 2013, we are forecasting growth to bounce back to over 2% next year."

Economists said the latest show of continued growth in the sector would probably boost market speculation that the Bank of England will have to raise borrowing costs from their current record low of 0.5% sooner than suggested.

"With orders and production indices remaining firm, the PMI is consistent with an acceleration in GDP growth in the fourth quarter from the 0.8% quarter-on-quarter rate recorded in the third quarter, which should keep early rate hike expectations and sterling supported, particularly against the euro," said James Knightley at ING Financial Markets.

Picture of the Day

Roger Federer of Switzerland sits between sets as he faces Kevin Anderson of South Africa at the Paris Masters men's singles tennis tournament at the Palais Omnisports of Bercy in Paris, 30 

MS Dhoni fears for 'long-term health' of one-day internationals

MS Dhoni is concerned about the damage being inflicted on bowlers in one-day games. Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

The India captain, MS Dhoni, admits he fears for the future of one-day cricket after watching yet another huge successful run chase.

Dhoni hit the winning runs to complete India's successful chase of Australia's target of 351, sending their best-of-seven series to a decider in Bangalore on Saturday. It was the third big run chase of the series, in addition to India reeling in a record 360 in Jaipur and Australia clubbing 44 off the final three overs to triumph at Mohali.

But rather than bask in the extraordinary win, Dhoni admitted he was concerned about the direction the game was taking. "I think it's something we need to think about," Dhoni said when asked about the frequency of the high chases. "Is 350 the new 280, 290 or 300? With the new bowlers they are mostly getting smashed.

"Even the fast bowlers are bowling with their third man up and fine leg up. I'm not sure where it's going but if we are chasing like this it is not going to be good for the long-term health of the game. Only seeing boundaries and sixes for seven hours?"

No bowler escaped from Wednesday night's onslaught with their figures intact. Dhoni admitted his bowlers were left dispirited by the boundaries which fly off the bat – and even joked that bowling machines might be more effective. "The bowlers actually feel it will be better off to put a bowling machine there," he said. "I honestly don't know what is a good performance now by a bowler. Ten overs, 80 [runs] is a bad performance or 10 overs 60 is a bad performance or 10 overs 100 is a bad performance?

"That's what we are still trying to find out. The bowlers are facing a huge challenge but as you have seen over the years they adapt faster to the rules than the batsmen."

His Australian counterpart, George Bailey, said bowlers were getting no help from the conditions or the rules on his team's current tour of India.

"The game has changed a little bit," he said. "The four (fielders) out is really challenging. You almost have to give up one side of the field. We're seeing some of the best fast bowlers in the world having to bowl with a short fine leg. It makes it hard. I'm not sure if it's something they adapt to."

The photography of Deborah Turbeville

The Bath House, American Vogue 1975 Photograph: Deborah Turbeville/Marek & Associates

Deborah Turbeville, the American fashion photographer who died this week at the age of 81, made a career out of making images that were shrouded in mystery. Originally a fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar, she first started taking pictures in the 70s. This context is key – she was a contemporary of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin, whose glossy, sexy and confrontational pictures unsettled the still-stuffy world of fashion. Turbeville's aesthetic was different – dreamy and mysterious. It doesn't feel as if you're invited in to an urban erotic underworld, as with Newton. Instead, hers was a more delicate – more female – gaze. Working for Vogue and Nova, and producing ad campaigns for the likes of Valentino and Acne, Turbeville turned fashion pictures into intriguing character studies.

You want to know more about the woman posing in the ruined palazzo, or the group of swimsuit models caught in the showers. Like stills from a long-lost film, these images stay with you and – as Turbeville later said – exist outside the realm of fashion. There is something precious and antique about her pictures, and they represent a great legacy to be discovered by younger talents.

Falcao does not have exit clause, insist Monaco

The club's vice-president, Vadim Vasilyev, has ended speculation about the striker's future by making it clear that they have no intention of selling him to Real Madrid

Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev has insisted that Radamel Falcao does not have an exit clause in his contract amid reports linking the Colombia international with a move to Real Madrid.

Madrid president Florentino Perez recently admitted that the Liga giants see Falcao as an interesting option for the future, with several Spanish sources claiming that the 27-year-old could join the Santiago Bernabeu side for a set fee.

However, Monaco have made it clear that Falcao will not be going anywhere for now.

"I know Florentino and I have a lot of respect for him. He runs one of the best clubs in the world, but I think some of his comments were inappropriate," Vasilyev told Marca.

"Falcao has signed a five-year deal with Monaco and I have already said a hundred times that he doesn't have an exit clause.

"We put in a lot of effort in order to sign him and it would not make any sense to allow him to leave again in January or next summer."

Falcao has a contract with Monaco until June 2018.