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Pirate Activist Shows Politicians What Digital Surveillance Looks Like

Posted by timothy on from the count-your-spoons-around-the-public-servants dept.

An anonymous reader writes How to make politicians really understand the dangers of mass digital surveillance and the importance of information security? Gustav Nipe, the 26-year old president of the Swedish Pirate Party's youth wing, tried to do it by setting up an open Wi-Fi network at the Society and Defence National Conference held in Sälen, Sweden, and collecting and analyzing the metadata of conference attendees who connected to it. Nipe set up an open wireless Internet access point named "Open Guest" and over 100 delegates used this particular unsecured Wi-Fi network to go online. The collected metadata showed that, among other sites, they visited those of daily Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Swedish private ads website Blocket, eBay, and tourism sites. "This was during the day when I suppose they were being paid to be at the conference working," Nipe noted for The Local.

8 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. People forget about people. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The problem with these laws is the idea that THEIR Organization is the good guys they figure they will not misuse the information...
    However they forgot that their organization is full of people and every person has a slightly different agenda in life. So the gray area between good guy and bad guy will be at different spots.
    For some vegans they equate dairy as rape, so they will see they guy who wants a real cheese pizza as some sort of monster who must be stopped.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:People forget about people. by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For some vegans they equate dairy as rape

      And, as a long term vegetarian .. this is why I view PETA and most vegans with some contempt. The rhetoric and crazy gets dialed up to 11 straight out of the gate.

      Slightly more on topic, I'm glad someone is demonstrating what "just the metadata" really translates into. People have been hoodwinked into thinking this isn't as severe as it really is.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:People forget about people. by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The rhetoric and crazy gets dialed up to 11 straight out of the gate.

      Same reason I stay away from churches and religion in general. Each have their own agenda, whether the people who belong realize it or not.

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    3. Re:People forget about people. by bondsbw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Um, the justification was to avoid churches/religion because they have an agenda . Avoiding them for some other reason (preconceived notion, don't believe in their views, etc.) is a different justification and is not what we are talking about here.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    4. Re:People forget about people. by Coren22 · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

      Much of the scientific method was pioneered first by ancient civilizations such as the Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, and Sumerians. Later during the middle ages the Catholic church was responsible for saving much of the scientific knowledge from these civilizations, thus allowing the scientific method to develop in Europe during and after the Renaissance and through the enlightenment period.

      Researched historical information can be funny, but many times it is true. If you don't like WP, feel free to click any of the citations at the bottom.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  2. Work at a conference - heh! by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 5, Funny

    >> be at the conference working

    No one goes to a conference to do work. You're generally only doing work if you get called into an issue from home base.

  3. Shiver me timbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Thar be politians sailing on the WiFi seas!!! Man the harpoons!!!! Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!!!!

  4. Views of the World by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Too many people think everyone sees the world as they do. This won't get the politicians to do anything about mass surveillance. What it'll do is push them more towards making hosting your own network illegal. Anything not coming from an approved ISP is untrusted and thus for the safety of all should be banned.

    It gives more teeth to hotels and other companies that say they need to actively block and ban unknown networks.