President Obama Meets With Apple CEO Tim Cook Over Government Surveillance

President Barack Obama is said to have met with Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013 concerning the company's participation in government surveillance programs, according to a report from Politico. Along with Cook, President Obama also met with AT&T chief executive officer Randall Stephenson and former vice president of Google, Vint Serf, with one particular topic of conversation said to concern the rather controversial "PRISM" program:

Those invited were mostly senior executives, including Cook, Stephenson and Cerf, as well as representatives of groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and Gigi Sohn, the leader of Public Knowledge, according to three sources familiar with the meeting. Each declined comment for this story.

As a reminder, a number of reports in June claimed that Apple, along others, had been working with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) by handing over data from iDevice users worldwide. Apple denied the claim, and posted an open letter explaining its limited involvement in customer data sharing practices. The meeting on Thursday is reportedly made in "response to the president’s directive to have a national dialogue about how to best protect privacy in a digital era, including how to respect privacy while defending our national security," and so it's no surprise that Apple CEO Tim Cook is on the cards. Cook, after all, is no stranger to the Obamas: back in February, he even sat alongside first lady Michelle during President Obama's State of the Union address. Given the confidential nature of Thursday's meeting, it's not likely that further information will reach us. If it does, however, we'll be sure to keep you updated. In the meantime, see: Roku For iOS Gets Another AirPlay-Like Feature In The Form Of Video Streaming, Google Play Books For iOS Updated With Support For Rental Textbooks, and Vevo's 24/7 Music Video Streaming Channel Coming Soon To Apple TV.

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