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Mass Surveillance is Getting Worse (And You Are the Target)

January 2, 2017 By Sven Taylor — 6 Comments

mass surveillance

Do you ever get that uneasy feeling that something bad is happening and there’s not much you can do about it?

Have you noticed the increasing surveillance measures unfolding around the world?

You should take notice, because you are the target.

Worldwide trends in surveillance

Governments throughout the world are enacting surveillance laws based on a variety of different excuses:

  • Terrorism
  • Drug trafficking
  • Tax evasion
  • Copyright violations

Just in the past year, there have been three landmark laws passed.

  1. In the UK, Parliament passed the Investigatory Powers Bill, which forces all internet service providers and phone companies to record the activity of their customers online.
  2. In the US, Congress passed a law enabling internet service providers to record everything  their customers do online and sell this data to third parties and advertisers.
  3. In Australia, a law was passed forcing internet service providers to bulk collect private data and browsing history – similar to in the UK. (Get a VPN for Australia to stay safe.

Problem. Reaction. Solution… more surveillance 

While the causes can certainly be debated, the rise in terrorism, crime, and violence will be used as an excuse to enact more surveillance measures. You see this trend unfolding clearly everywhere – particularly in the Western world.

  1. Problem: increasing violence/terrorism/crime
  2. Reaction: people become afraid and demand solutions
  3. Solution: more surveillance and police state programs

It’s all entirely predictable. And as with most government programs, these surveillance measures will be permanent, rather than temporary “solutions.” Remember the Patriot Act back in 2001?

Welcome to the police state.

germans-surveillance

uk-spying

australia-surveillance-laws

The sad reality is that very little is likely to change with this trend.

In the interest of “security” and “public safety” governments want to know everything you do online, who you communicate with, and what your personal views are. And as various politicians demand more power to ensure public safety, the inevitable result is the loss of your privacy.

Even if you’re a law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide, you may end up on the wrong side of the ever-expanding surveillance state. This is no conspiracy, but rather just an unbiased observation when you look at the laws passed in the last year.

Even if you have nothing to hide, you are now the target.

Protect yourself… right now

The best tool for protecting your privacy online is a good VPN (virtual private network). A good VPN service will encrypt your internet connection, protect your privacy, and anonymize your online activity.

Here’s the bottom line: If you’re using a good VPN in combination with other privacy tools, you don’t have to stress about these developments. Just be smart and use protection whenever you go online.

For a full description of our top VPN recommendations, see the Best VPN service report.

About Sven Taylor

Sven Taylor is the lead editor and founder of Restore Privacy, a digital privacy advocacy group. With a passion for digital privacy and accessible information, he created RestorePrivacy to provide you with honest, useful, and up-to-date information about online privacy, security, and related topics.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rosemary's baby

    August 4, 2020

    (From Feb 21, 2019)
    A senior European Commission economist has warned that a Third World War is an extremely “high probability” in coming years due to the disintegration of global capitalism.
    In a working paper published last month, Professor Gerhard Hanappi argued that since the 2008 financial crash, the global economy has moved away from “integrated” capitalism into a “disintegrating” shift marked by the same sorts of trends which preceded previous world wars.
    [https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/the-disintegration-of-global-capitalism-could-unleash-world-war-3-warns-top-eu-economist-769487210e8f]

    Reply
  2. Rosemary's baby

    August 4, 2020

    As our governments push to increase their powers, INSURGE INTELLIGENCE can now reveal the vast extent to which the US intelligence community is implicated in nurturing the web platforms we know today, for the precise purpose of utilizing the technology as a mechanism to fight global ‘information war’ — a war to legitimize the power of the few over the rest of us. The lynchpin of this story is the corporation that in many ways defines the 21st century with its unobtrusive omnipresence: Google.
    Part 1
    [https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-cia-made-google-e836451a959e]

    MIIS CySec is formally partnered with the Pentagon’s Highlands Forum through an MoU signed between the provost and Forum president Richard O’Neill, while the initiative itself is funded by George C. Lee: the Goldman Sachs executive who led the billion dollar valuations of Facebook, Google, eBay, and other tech companies.
    Part 2
    [https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/why-google-made-the-nsa-2a80584c9c1]

    Reply
  3. Rosemary's baby

    August 4, 2020

    Do we understand?
    [https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-west-built-huaweis-genocidal-surveillance-complex-in-china-dcc5d166b359]

    Reply
  4. J.M.

    March 26, 2020

    @Sven,

    I would greatly appreciate your thoughts. Thanks.

    https://awiebe.org/en/beware-corona-virus-license-for-mass-surveillance/

    Reply
    • Sven Taylor

      March 27, 2020

      Yep, I agree with the author. These are very alarming times and the saying “never let a crisis go to waste” applies because they will use this to usher in my surveillance powers. This is from the same playbook and it’s happening the world over.

      Reply
      • J.M.

        April 15, 2020

        Sven,

        Thanks. The man who made that statement was also part of the Obama presidency. And was part of the plan. To change America.

        It is coming out how much Obama has “Fundamentally Transformed America”. Sad. Very sad.

        Reply

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