Slashdot Mirror
EFF Unveils Plan For Ending Mass Surveillance
An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a detailed, global strategy for ridding ourselves of mass surveillance. They stress that this must be an international effort — while citizens of many countries can vote against politicians who support surveillance, there are also many countries where the citizens have to resort to other methods. The central part of the EFF's plan is: encryption, encryption, encryption. They say we need to build new secure communications tools, pressure existing tech companies to make their products secure against everyone, and get ordinary internet-goers to recognize that encryption is a fundamental part of communication in the surveillance age.
They also advocate fighting for transparency and against overreach on a national level. "[T]he more people worldwide understand the threat and the more they understand how to protect themselves—and just as importantly, what they should expect in the way of support from companies and governments—the more we can agitate for the changes we need online to fend off the dragnet collection of data." The EFF references a document created to apply the principles of human rights to communications surveillance, which they say are "our way of making sure that the global norm for human rights in the context of communication surveillance isn't the warped viewpoint of NSA and its four closest allies, but that of 50 years of human rights standards showing mass surveillance to be unnecessary and disproportionate."
They also advocate fighting for transparency and against overreach on a national level. "[T]he more people worldwide understand the threat and the more they understand how to protect themselves—and just as importantly, what they should expect in the way of support from companies and governments—the more we can agitate for the changes we need online to fend off the dragnet collection of data." The EFF references a document created to apply the principles of human rights to communications surveillance, which they say are "our way of making sure that the global norm for human rights in the context of communication surveillance isn't the warped viewpoint of NSA and its four closest allies, but that of 50 years of human rights standards showing mass surveillance to be unnecessary and disproportionate."
So, Slashdot, should we expect your support?. https, when?
Agreed, but it's worth noting that they're very US-centric (and that's not a criticism, just a statement of fact) so if you're not from the US you may find your money better spent elsewhere.
For example, in the UK, the Open Rights Group is far more relevant and helpful towards dealing with these issues in the UK than the EFF is. Presumably the options in countries like Sweden and Germany would be the much better organised respect Pirate parties there.
I heard a good quote from Glenn Greenwald. When talking with friends and others about mass surveillance, people often respond, "Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." To this, he replies, "Well, you're not doing anything wrong, right? So you wouldn't mind giving me the password to all your email accounts, and I will go through there and look for anything I find interesting and want to write about?" This makes people realize PRIVACY is not about HIDING bad stuff but about our fundamental write to keep our private communications from our private lives PRIVATE!
It is a catch 22; You can't get a warrant without evidence and you can't get evidence without a warrant.
No. Its really not. Its called regular police work. And police have been identifying suspects, building cases against them, culminating in search and arrest warrants for a hundred years now without "mass surveillance".
Will the EFF be the ones who apologize to the families of those killed by attacks that could have been stopped?
Where are these unicorns? Has there ever been a single verifiable case of this?
And even if they do exist? So what? Why should the EFF apologize for pushing for policies that make us all more free; even if a tiny handful of people die as a result?
Should the police be allowed to just randomly stop and frisk you? Maybe give you an anal probe right on the street? Maybe come into your house at night, and search the place for evidence of terrorism? No? You don't think that's ok?
Will you personally apologize to the families of those killed by attacks that could have been stopped if these searches had been allowed?
That's a good point, but it also misses the fact that there isn't a single government throughout history that didn't subject its citizens to horrible abuses of some sort, which includes the US government. Give normal humans nearly unlimited power and they'll abuse it. The people who say "If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear." must be completely and utterly ignorant of history, and must have such faith in the 'normal' people in their governments that they not only believe that the current people in the government will not make mistakes or abuse their powers, but that everyone who will ever be in the government will always be that way. That is just plain stupidity.
Also, the fact that it's unconstitutional in the US should make people in "the land of the free and the home of the brave" oppose it instantly. Whatever happened to the idea that we should be extremely cautious of the government? Even many of the people who say they want a smaller government support mass surveillance, which makes zero sense.
"If you're not doing anything wrong, then you have no reason to hide"
That's what you say if you're the aggressor. If you're the victim, you say this:
"If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no reason to spy on me."
This forces the aggressor to come forward and admit that he doesn't believe in one of the most fundamental concepts of justice: that individuals are innocent before proven guilty.