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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Problem: increasing violence/terrorism/crime
- Reaction: people become afraid and demand solutions
- 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.
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.
Antiterrorism Censorship Regulation
Hello Sven, wondering if you or anyone else seen this-
European Governments agree to outsource Internet censorship to Google and Facebook
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2018/12/06/european-governments-agree-to-outsource-internet-censorship-to-google-and-facebook/
and
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2018/12/12/european-parliament-calls-for-automated-and-private-censorship-of-the-web-for-security-purposes/
Two of the worst offenders on users privacy, and one that can’t even run it’s own tight ship as we witnessed this past election season.
Deserve it’s own article?
Maybe a topic in Blog for ‘News around the Web’ and offer such articles. Wish you the best my privacy friend.
Thanks Hard Sell, that is interesting.
Australia has now gone A MAJOR STEP UP from forcing it’s countries internet service providers in the bulk collecting of private data and browsing history of their users…
I believe it was on the 1st Thursday in Dec. 2018, the A&A Bill was rammed through their Parliament.
The Assistance and Access (A&A) law requires tech companies to help law enforcement agencies break into individuals encrypted data. Using secret warrants, the government can even compel a company to serve malware remotely to the target’s device.
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Despite objections from experts, businesses, lawyers groups, civil rights groups in loud objections of every sector of it’s society. This endangers the security of everyone who uses online services there, it weakens everyone’s civil rights like privacy and due process, and it places an unprecedented burden on tech companies to attack the very users they set out to serve.
Australia’s new law goes much further than the likes of the British Investigatory Powers law and the NSA’s possible decryption programs seeking to break encryption as it is more brazen.
Essentially deputizing tech businesses as accomplices in a surveillance scheme so loosely conceived that no one really knows its limits. “The definition of ‘acts or things’ in the Bill is also so vague as to potentially permit almost limitless forms of assistance.
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Privacy advocates have always successfully argued that there is no such thing as a backdoor that only lets the good guys in. So the government went back to the drawing board. The result is the Assistance and Access law which Australian lawmakers voted Thursday to break encryption once and for all.
While the law does not technically require a backdoor, it would require companies to help police build software capable of decrypting a targeted user’s data (i.e. with targeted malware).
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The Australian Computer Society, a trade association for IT professionals, outlined several issues to problems of the A&A Law, these are barely scratching the surface of how vast the implications could be.
*Not every company has the technical know-how to safely implement malware that won’t accidentally backdoor the entire product (particularly with IoT devices), putting the security of people’s homes and organizations at risk.
*Businesses can’t easily plan or budget for possible covert surveillance work with the government.
*A companion explanatory document outlines some safeguards to protect civil rights and privacy that don’t actually appear in the law itself.
*Once police have gained access to a suspect’s device, they could easily remove evidence from the device that could prove the person’s innocence. There would be no way to know.
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Even though A&A is confined to Australian jurisdiction, it sets a precedent with far-reaching dangers to cybersecurity. Online privacy and security are often affirmed on trust models as in the internet service provider or even a VPN. Australian Parliament has single-handedly undermined global confidence in any software maker with an Australian presence, including Facebook (by extension WhatsApp and Instagram), Google, and Apple.
THIS may also encourage other governments to create their own versions of the A&A Law. But, because Australia is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement, some foreign intelligence agencies may not even have to wait to reap the benefits. The governments of the US, UK, Canada, and New Zealand can gain access to whatever information Australian spies collect using their new A&A powers.
Great points, Hard Sell, this topic is worth an article of its own.
Hi Sven,
Go for it, send me a message and I’ll give you the source.
It was much longer and detailed than I’ve offered here.
Then you can compose your own article and delete this here ‘go for it’, as well of my rendition – ok 🙂
thanks!
Hey, I’ve before wondered if privacy as well as security would end up being a rich persons commodity instead of an equal service afforded to all.
Looks like recent trends have it leaning towards those that can pay for it and I mean over and over again.
Applications installed on a PC, and then secure services (VPN as one example) for our online activity used to offer Lifetime licenses ‘Perpetual’ (for Lifetime Free Upgrades – minor/major). Seeing now that everything is moving towards the subscription bases. What a shame for poor folks – like me.
– Seen something interesting for Mass Surveillance purposes of security that the rich will advance for their fast paced lives.
– – Biometrics are identifiers, such as in your irises and fingerprints in their distinct characteristics as the most accurate forms of ID, and instead of using the traditional ID documents (pictures of self) issued by States and Governments.
– – – The name is ‘CLEAR’ and it’s SAFETY Act Certified by the Department of Homeland Security. CLEAR transforms your biometrics into an encrypted code with the pattern of ones and zeros being unique to you, and only you.
Used already in 35+ airports and stadiums around the country.
1. Feel confident knowing how quickly you’ll get through security.
2. Check in at a CLEAR pod with your eyes or fingertips.
[https://www.clearme.com/]
Wonder if hackers can break into this system and/or how many more institutes and businesses adopt it?
Yeah I’m sure there’s a way it could be compromised. I’ve noticed this in airports.
Totally agree with you Sven !
But what about all the things right under our nose or in our hand, even IoT stuff in our homes – at what spying level will this be at in the early 202x’s.
The obvious PC’s, Smart TV’s / phones and such we touch all target us for our data collection, GPS location in an ever growing ID profile that’s kept on us.
Then the internet connected smart devices in our homes right now are set up for every burp, fart passed by the homes occupants to the AI algorithms in a digital psychology learning techniques of their users.
Only to grow in numbers of home appliances and as tech moves into cars to even more areas where users data is generated.
This involuntary collection of peoples data right under our own noses can be linked to other data in such as online services, interests, group associations, banking, medical, jobs, finances, all related to our internet use.
Now consider all of that online data being linked with your off-line world. Your name, age, sex, race, weight, height, from health services, city/county municipalities, hotels stays, insurance policies, schools attended and the list goes on.
Now think about all the brick and mortar store purchases you’ve made on your debit/credit cards (as we’re really a cashless society). All this data combined stored even indexed for later annalist, all up for sale as a commodity by data brokers to health insures, employers, credit rating agencies, etc. and least not to forget about advertisers in the 100+ billion dollar advertising industry.
One not only needs a deny-by-default firewall on the PC’s side in the home but, affixed to a router for multiple devices if that’s possible for every outgoing network connection of the homes network…
It pays to be smart and greedy in what we share on social sites, our online purchases, post made, emails sent and really everything that’s internet connected we do. You can try to keep things about yourself as a need to know basis but is that helping, when big data still profiles you. As in all the ways being done right now and your generated date pool grows with every internet connection you or your device(s) make.
All a data broker has to do is enter some keywords into your data profile or run a few algorithms on it and sees what turns up. Just to think the original purpose for data retention was for advertising purposes, hell so it’s not now as it gone fully blown.
Knowledge is power and absolute power is absolute corruption at whatever level. When the knowledge is about you and your not in control of it, it’s misused. The internet is a form of communication and everything linked to it from a persons private use or connected device(s) should be treated as sensitive. Then users given ability to cherry-pick what’s to be kept in their ever growing data profile on themselves as a web ID.
A VPN helps out some but it’s not a complete solution to the problem at hand. As you’ve outlined above it mostly helps out for Governments enacting surveillance laws based on a variety of different excuses. That attack surface it’s great for a VPN user then.
But no traffic encryption is going to fend off against private information of a users behavior in online activity as when their home, what devices and types are connected to the network>internet, even wart off knowing about the sleeping/wake patterns of a user. As that’s all beyond a VPN’s ability and your ISP will still know this even after all.
Win 10 users.
[https://blog.emsisoft.com/en/18770/the-truth-about-windows-10-spying-on-almost-everything-you-do/]