The issue focused on two programs in which technology companies will have to give the government access to user data: the Internet Information Sharing and Protection Act, or IISPA, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA.

The laws have been used to prosecute Apple and Microsoft for breaking them, and have been recently used to jail Internet activist Aaron Swartz.

The Internet Association, a trade group that represents Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Amazon, and other technology companies, says in