andersju, I have a question, and I am asking most sincerely, I am not trying to quibble.
What is this thing, and why are we supposed to be afraid of it?
The technology available today makes it possible for governments and others to monitor and analyze people's lives on a scale and a level of sophistication never before seen or possible. This is not some hazy conspiracy theory; this is going on at this very moment, and I'm not talking about Facebook or similar things that you don't have to participate in. I'm talking about the things that you actually don't have a choice about.
I already mentioned the
EU data retention directive, the point of which is to make it possible to track where you are, who you are communicating with, and when. Example: when you call someone, the telecom operator has to log your geographic location and the location of the person you are calling, along with date and time and duration of the call. Same with all your text messages and email. This information must be stored for a period of 6-24 months and be available to law enforcement agencies.
(Note: this is not just if you are a suspect of crime. It applies to
everyone.)
The directive has been criticized for many reasons, not least for its human rights violations. The EU parliament did, however, vote yes on it several years ago, which means all the member states are forced to implement it in law. Most countries have done this by now. There are proposals about extending it to also include people's searches. To protect the kids, you know.
In Sweden, as I noted before, the parliament passed in 2008 a
very controversial
mass surveillance law (of a kind usually associated with dictatorships) allowing the government to warrantlessly wiretap practically
all Internet traffic. You could say it's the digital equivalent of a gov't official at the post office opening every letter, reading it and re-sealing it before delivery to you. (Except it's even worse, since most people conduct large parts of their business and social lives on the Internet these days.)
The
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is a plurilateral agreement that's now almost finalized. The purpose is to combat things like counterfeit goods, generic medicine and copyright infringement. That might not sound too bad to some, but many of the provisions are hair-raising:
"Newspapers reported that the draft agreement would empower security officials at airports and other international borders to conduct random
ex officio searches of laptops, MP3 players, and cellular phones for illegally downloaded or "ripped" music and movies. Travellers with infringing content would be subject to a fine and may have their devices confiscated or destroyed."
The ACTA negotiations were conducted in secret. The general public didn't become aware of them until 2008, when Wikileaks leaked a paper about it.
I could go on, but this is probably not the right place, and I might have bored you out of your mind already
🙂 I just wanted to give some actual examples of what's happening at the moment, not what
might. (And remember:
this is just the beginning.) If you're interested in these issues, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation is a respectable organization that has fought for civil liberties for 20 years now.
