There may be reasons why the President doesn’t wish to grant a pardon to Snowden, but his stated reasons are completely bogus.
Techdirt: President Obama Claims He Cannot Pardon Snowden; He’s Wrong »
Orwell would be horrified
Jim Killock, the executive director of Open Rights Group, said: “The UK now has a surveillance law that is more suited to a dictatorship than a democracy. The state has unprecedented powers to monitor and analyse UK citizens’ communications regardless of whether we are suspected of any criminal activity.”
The Guardian: ‘Extreme surveillance’ becomes UK law with barely a whimper »
Trump’s CIA Director: Execute Edward Snowden
By HAX on November 20, 2016 in Big Brother, Big Government, Democracy, Manning, Rule of law, Snowden, US
On the UK Snoopers Charter
By HAX on November 18, 2016 in Big Brother, Civil liberties, Cryptography, Internet, Police state, Privacy, UK
Britain has passed the ‘most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a democracy’.
The law forces UK internet providers to store browsing histories — including domains visited — for one year, in case of police investigations.
Dutch government leaving us all vulnerable
EDRi: Dutch government wants to keep “zero days” available for exploitation »
The Dutch government is very clear about at least one thing: unknown software vulnerabilities, also known as “zero days”, may be left open by the government, in order to be exploited by secret services and the police.
So, the Dutch government is willing to leave information technology all over the world vulnerable to known dangers – to be able to use them itself?
What could possibly go wrong?
EU cryptic on encryption
The European Union intends to simplify investigative authorities’ access to encrypted content. This emerged from the replies to a questionnaire that was circulated to all Member States by the Slovak Presidency of the EU Council. After a “reflection process”, efforts in this area are, according to the summary of the replies, intended to give rise to a framework for “cooperation” with internet providers. It remains unclear whether this will take the form of a recommendation, regulation or directive or, indeed, what “cooperation” might mean.
EDRi: New EU network to combat the “challenges stemming from encryption” »
Net platforms ask Trump to support encryption
The Verge: Facebook, Google, and Twitter urge Trump to support encryption and immigration reform »
Told you so…
In fact, a new Democratic Party orthodoxy took hold under Obama: the right of a president to detain people, or even assassinate them, without charges or a whiff of judicial oversight. This included even American citizens.
Glenn Greenwald in Washington Post: Trump will have vast powers. He can thank Democrats for them. »
EU in new attempt to make ISP:s police and censor the Internet
By HAX on November 12, 2016 in Censorship, Civil liberties, Copyright, EU, Freedom of Speech, Intellectual Property, Internet, Rule of law
Joe McNamee, EDRi: EU Copyright Directive – privatised censorship and filtering of free speech »
The proposed Directive:
1) requires internet companies to install filtering technology to prevent the upload of content that has been “identified by rightsholders”
2) seeks to make internet providers responsible for their users’ uploads
3) gives internet users no meaningful protection from unfair deletion of their creations
So, ISP:s will have to check on all content uploaded by users – i.e. scrutinize everything that is uploaded to the Internet.
What is to be allowed or censored will not be a matter of rule of law – but falls under company terms and conditions that can state… whatever.
There will be no legal means of redress or appeal.
Freedom of speech and freedom of information will be in the hands of ISP:s who are to be liable for all user uploads. There is good reason to fear that these companies will be overly anxious and cautious – censoring everything with even a remote possibility of being an infringement of copyright.
This is yet another attempt to get around the eCommerce-directives principle of »mere conduit« stating that net operators can not be liable for what users are doing in their cables.
And imagine the burden on the ISP:s, having to police all of the users net activities.
This proposal is an assault on »mere conduit«, free speech, privacy and the rule of law. It must be stopped.
/ HAX
EDRi on censorship of free speech in the EU
By HAX on November 12, 2016 in Censorship, EU, Freedom of Speech, Internet, Rule of law, social media
EDRi on the EU agreement with social media to censor e.g. hate speech and radicalization, the »Joint Referral Platform«…
Both incitement to violence and violence itself are utterly unacceptable. However, this abhorrent behaviour must also not result in attacks on core principles of our society. In particular, any restrictions must be proportionate, necessary and genuinely meet their objectives. This means that we need clear laws and clear responsibilities for all parties involved: states, providers and civil society. (…)
The restrictions are not provided for by law ‒ terms of service take precedence. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the German parliamentary question, the proportionality cannot be assessed as the State is not in possession of useful data.