Crossroads - Summer 2014

Why Saying No to the NSA
is a Slippery Slope

As the Publisher of XRDS, most of what I do in relation to the magazine is behind the scenes, but from time to time I have the opportunity to step into the spotlight and express my opinions on topics of interest to our readership and community.

In this issue, I have been asked by XRDS’ co-Editors-In-Chief, Inbal Talgam and Sean Follmer, to talk about ACM’s advertising policy and in particular why ACM has chosen to accept advertising from the National Security Agency (NSA). This request came partially as a result of an email written by members of the computer science community, Philipp Schmidt and Theresa Enghardt, entitled “ ADbarrassment,” which appears in this issue. Philipp and Theresa share their perspectives on the NSA, personal experiences as members of the international computer science community, and the role scientific societies, such as ACM, should play in relation to the NSA and similar organizations.

In preparing to write this editorial, I did a quick Google search and found an interesting article entitled “Mathematician Spies,” published in the New Scientist, which makes an impas-

sioned plea to mathematicians to stop working for and with the NSA. I also found other articles, such as David Welna’s “What’s The NSA Doing Now? Training More Cyberwarriors,” written on behalf of NPR, which talks about recruiting computer scientists at the NSA in the post-Snowden era. One interesting fact I was not aware of is that the NSA is one of the largest employers of mathematicians and computer scientists in the United States and the world, and the practical implications of this scandal for the NSA as an employer are undoubtedly quite significant, regardless of one’s personal opinions about the Snowden case.

Whatever your personal opinions about the morality of Snowden’s whistle-blowing or the legality of the NSA’s clandestine activities may be, the NSA is a large and active employer of computing professionals in our industry; manages their recruiting programs and policies in what appears to be a highly professional and ethical manner; and appears to recruit, hire, and develop a highly skilled and diverse workforce from around the world without discriminating based on age, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orienta-

tion. They do so through legitimate channels, utilizing university recruitment programs, paid advertisements that showcase opportunities for employment, public job boards, and other commonly utilized channels for recruiting and hiring members of the computer science community.

While many are now questioning some of the NSA’s methods and programs, and have every right to do so, it should be up to members of our community to decide for themselves whether the NSA would be a desirable employer or an organization to boycott. I suspect some will feel as

Schmidt and Enghardt do, while others will not, but is it the role of scientific societies, such as ACM, to make this choice for readers by refusing to publish adver-

tisements for the NSA or other organizations accused of acting inappropriately? And, if we did play this role, what are the practical implications of this for ACM and the computing community at large?

ACM is not a political organization; it is rather a member organization that exists to serve the international computer science community, consisting primarily of students, researchers, educators, and practitioners from around the world. Less than 50 percent of our membership is currently from the United States and while we are a U.S.-based 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, we do not take political positions or engage in political lobbying activities, even though many of our members and volunteers do have strong opinions on a wide range of political issues.

One of the nice things about working at ACM is we are not in any way financially dependent on advertising as a source of revenue. In fact, advertising makes up less than 2 percent of ACM’s total income as an organization and the paid advertising from the NSA makes up a very small fraction of that already small number. Most of our advertising is focused on providing career opportunities to members of the