As the NSA revelations started to unfold, citizens around the globe called upon their governments to protect their privacy – what a foolish idea. Those who want their privacy protected must take action themselves.
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Modern society tends to comfort itself by using an ostrich policy – “if I can’t see it, it won’t hurt me.” For many years there have been warning signs out there: the spying and wiretapping of Kim Dotcom; the confidentiality leaks at Facebook; the Dropbox scandal; the manhunt for Assange; the geo-tracking by Apple; the dark hours of the ugly sistersSOPA, ACTA, and PIPA…and now PRISM, Tempora and the monitoring of the world’s population. We can’t fool ourselves any longer; governments and large organizations are trying to exploit the data goldmine provided by the biggest Internet industry players who, at the same time, actively bereave their opponents of the ability to act against them. We are about to slip into Orwell’s nightmare.
The vast majority of citizens with an Internet connection are aware that perils lie in exposing too much information online – whether it be stalkers, phishing scammers or identity thieves, the general consensus is that “danger” is certainly lurking in the shadows. Most individuals pay little attention to the easily tracked data trail they drop behind them along the way, and some may even defend themselves arguing that they are virtually inactive on social networks. But what about their entourage? The whole Western world is online, and habits are easily to assume with ample data from a circle of family members and friends.
Most people might, at this point in our technological timeline, assume that one may be able to find information regarding their date and place of birth online, maybe an address and probably even physical appearance. But there is so much more. With a bit of hacking and monitoring, a great complexity of information can be mined within mere minutes: Tell me what you eat, I will tell you who you are. Let me wiretap your Internet connection and I will tell you who you are, who you were, and who you will become. Yes, your computer knows more about you than you do yourself, and so could the government.
Modern society tends to comfort itself by using an ostrich policy – “if I can’t see it, it won’t hurt me.” For many years there have been warning signs out there: the spying and wiretapping of Kim Dotcom; the confidentiality leaks at Facebook; the Dropbox scandal; the manhunt for Assange; the geo-tracking by Apple; the dark hours of the ugly sistersSOPA, ACTA, and PIPA…and now PRISM, Tempora and the monitoring of the world’s population. We can’t fool ourselves any longer; governments and large organizations are trying to exploit the data goldmine provided by the biggest Internet industry players who, at the same time, actively bereave their opponents of the ability to act against them. We are about to slip into Orwell’s nightmare.
The vast majority of citizens with an Internet connection are aware that perils lie in exposing too much information online – whether it be stalkers, phishing scammers or identity thieves, the general consensus is that “danger” is certainly lurking in the shadows. Most individuals pay little attention to the easily tracked data trail they drop behind them along the way, and some may even defend themselves arguing that they are virtually inactive on social networks. But what about their entourage? The whole Western world is online, and habits are easily to assume with ample data from a circle of family members and friends.
Most people might, at this point in our technological timeline, assume that one may be able to find information regarding their date and place of birth online, maybe an address and probably even physical appearance. But there is so much more. With a bit of hacking and monitoring, a great complexity of information can be mined within mere minutes: Tell me what you eat, I will tell you who you are. Let me wiretap your Internet connection and I will tell you who you are, who you were, and who you will become. Yes, your computer knows more about you than you do yourself, and so could the government.
The (Effective) Riposte
The interesting part of all this is that there hasn’t really been a counter strike from governments. The Obama administration tends to minimize input at this point, and European representatives blame diplomatic incidents (but would still arrest and deliver Snowden or any other hacktivist). Overall, there wasn’t any kind of flat denial or real decision undertaken to counteract the unveiling of Snowden’s revelations.
The most powerful weapon against the Internet is …well, the Internet. There is so much content on the Internet that the collective libraries of the world wouldn’t be big enough to hold all of its knowledge. For the average net user, it is easy to get fooled by certain content, and a normal reaction is a developed skepticism with regards to online content in general. There have been conspiracy theories about the moon landing, the World Trade Center attack, the Holocaust, and so many other historical events, that when radical news such as that heralding in the Star Trek-like PRISM Project comes along, people tend to relativize it.
Another important point is the image of the main Internet actors and defenders. Up until a couple of years ago, people involved in the Internet business were seen as spotty nerds sitting in their basements wishing they knew more girls. Anonymous, PirateBay, WikiLeaks, and key players such as Dotcom suffer from being pigeonholed as disorganized and vengeful criminals.
In addition to the effects on a very individual level, as discussed above, the control of the Internet can have huge socio-cultural impacts on the future of a country. The Internet is the only free media that exists in our current climate: everybody can publish, comment, share, like, discuss – in short, exchange. The best illustration of such triumph over censorship was the black hole of information provided by Turkish national media and the considerable amount of pictures, texts and videos available online, despite it. This instant and unconditional transparency has fully discredited Erdogan for his shameless denial of the use of police force. Even though social media accounts may have been banned, and an Internet connection was practically impossible to attain at Taksim square, people kept documenting and uploading the truth to be witnessed on the World Wide Web. The same thing happened in Brazil, Syria, and many other modern conflicts.
Fearing the Average Citizen
It’s foolish to rely only on governments to seek protection. The online world is moving at the speed of light in comparison to laws and legal agreements. Any clever Internet user should understand that every ounce of data published or uploaded to public networks will be just that, public.
Every action leads to a reaction and only populations have the power to change things. If a government hides, spies and seeks to censor online freedoms, it is the duty of the people to stand up for their rights. There isn’t any Superior Commission for the Internet. Only the media for and by the people are in charge of this. Assange or Snowden aren’t crazy nerds involved in some cyber war, they’re people defending one very real aspect of individual freedom and human rights. The Internet is much more than LOLcats; it’s the biggest platform for business, cultural exchanges and communication on earth.
To conclude, the words of Snowden can be transposed to any global institution: “In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning, or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised – and it should be.”
29.07.2013
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