After the Paris attacks politicians, police and the intelligence community are tumbling over each other eager to introduce even more mass surveillance.
This will direct resources away from regular police and intelligence work. It will not protect us, but could rather make us all less safe. But then again, mass surveillance isn’t really about terrorism. Obviously, it’s about control.
Terrorism (plus serious crime, drug trade, trafficking, child protection and the copyright legal framework) is being used as a pretext for doing what politicians cannot openly admit.
But facts are straight forward: We are all under surveillance.
The fight for people’s right to privacy must and will go on. But we also must recognize the fact that we are already living in a Big Brother society. It might be about time to re-group and re-think. Where do we take the fight for a free and open society from here?
There is the political road. Defending human and civil rights, you can punch over your weight. It all boils down to principles about democracy, rule of law and the relation between citizens and the government. In that context, most politicians cannot afford to appear as if they don’t care. Not in public.
And there is the technical road. Let’s start with something reasonable: Could anybody please make strong e-mail encryption really, really user-friendly? It shouldn’t be impossible. Or let’s take a wider approach: Can the entire internet protocol be replaced with something new and more privacy friendly?
The fight will go on. And you can be certain of one thing: Regardless of how much surveillance we have, the ruling political and bureaucratic classes will always find reasons to introduce more.
/ HAX
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Whoever is doing all the mass surveillance, you people should know that you are going up against a very powerful force. The force of human independence.
We are a species of free, independent, sovereign individuals, and we will not be cattle.
Your millennia in the sun is drawing to a close, we can see you guys panicking for the control you once has, but have lost.
WE ARE FREE, NATURE GAURENTEES THIS.
Pete… Most of us grow up to become quite social animals with a plethora of emotional buttons to press. That’s the reality. We won’t be winning many sympathies by arguing like fanatics. It’s a huge uphill battle and the information is extremely assymetrical. Most people would be getting kids before they even understand these issues (if they ever do) and then their emotional register of buttons to press for the surveillers is even larger. Politicians through all times have been using kids in their propaganda – because it works so damned well.