Government spying self-defense site
p2pnet news view Security | Freedom | P2P:- If you’re in the US and you’re worried the government has its beady eye on you, the EFF believes it may be able to ease your mind, with support from the Open Society Institute.
Because today is lift-off day for the Surveillance Self-Defense site to, “educate the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance in the United States, providing the information and tools necessary to evaluate the threat of surveillance and take appropriate steps to defend against it”.
More succinctly, it’s an “online how-to guide for protecting your private data against government spying,” detailing what the government can legally do to spy on your computer data and communications, and what you can legally do to protect yourself against such spying, says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
It tells Americans, “about the law and technology of communications surveillance and computer searches and seizures, and to provide the information and tools necessary to keep their private data out of the government’s hands,” says the EFF, going on the guide includes tips on assessing the security risks to your personal computer files and communications, strategies for interacting with law enforcement, and articles on specific defensive technologies such as encryption that can help protect the privacy of your data.”
“You can imagine the Internet as a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking up all of the private information that you let near it. We want to show people the tools they can use to encrypt and anonymize data, protecting themselves against government surveillance,” says EFF staff technologist Peter Eckersley.
Says the guide »»»
- First, we’re going to talk about the threat to the data stored on your computer posed by searches and seizures by law enforcement, as well as subpoenas demanding your records.
- Second, we’re going to talk about the threat to your data on the wire â that is, your data as it’s being transmitted â posed by wiretapping and other real-time surveillance of your telephone and Internet communications by law enforcement.
- Third, we’re going to describe the information about you that is stored by third parties like your phone company and your Internet service provider, and how law enforcement officials can get it.
- In each of these three sections, we’re going to give you practical advice about how to protect your private data against law enforcement agents.
- In a fourth section, we’ll also provide some basic information about the U.S. government’s expanded legal authority when it comes to foreign intelligence and terrorism investigations.
EFF – EFF Releases How-To Guide to Fight Government Spying, March 3, 2009
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March 3rd, 2009 at 7:52 pm
It is not only a US problem, the problem is with all governments of the world.
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely
Meaning
Literal meaning.
Origin
This arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834â1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
Another English politician with no shortage of names – William Pitt, the Elder, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, is sometimes wrongly attributed as the source. He did say something similar, in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770:
“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it”
copypasta from http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/288200.html
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:11 pm
And what about the corresponding laws in Canada?
I think that this project should be a wiki, with editorial oversight and experts.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
The role of a State is to preserve the person and property of its citizens from illegal and unauthorised intrusions. In the modern technological era this role has considerably changed. The State instead of protecting its citizens is trying to regulate their online conduct through e-surveillance. An important question that arises in this situation is whether the citizens can exercise right to self-defense against illegal eavesdropping and e-surveillance? See http://perry4lawgroups.blogspot.com/2009/03/private-defense-in-cyberspace-against.html for more.