[Infowarrior] - Privacy about to punted again when 'balanced' against need for govt spying

[Richard Forno]

Privacy about to punted again when 'balanced' against need for govt spying

There was talk about balancing privacy against the online spying needs of governments and that this surveillance and tracking should not bother you if you've done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide. Balance? Bite me.

By Ms. Smith on Mon, 11/28/11 - 3:34pm.
  
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/privacy-about-punted-again-when-balanced-agai

With the cyber-world such as it is now, constant breaches because companies are careless and lax about protecting our personal information, it might be true what the Office of Inadequate Security pointed out, "Maybe all companies should add 'check Pastebin' to their daily security to-do list." As if there's not enough personal info dumped about us all to invade privacy, any time there is talk about security and you hear the word 'balance' being used, citizens' privacy is about to be punted. This time it was in regard to online spying as being tracked by the government is, it would have you believe, for our own good to monitor and to stop all those potential terrorists and cybercrooks, not so it can build up massive databases with secret watchlists.

Such is the case of 'balancing privacy' against many different governments needing to track people's online activities. At ZDNet Asia, Elle Todd, media, communications and technology group partner at law firm Olswang Asia, noted "most citizens would accept that surveillance is an important part of law enforcement" when limited to "justifiable circumstances" and not when being spied upon "just in case" you are some kind of terrorist scum or cybercrook. The ZDNet article mentions Singapore-based Shawn Lee who was asked to take down a blog post and complied, saying "I haven't done anything wrong [and] I have nothing to hide, so it is fine that the government is tracking me."

This is where I could not disagree more; this entire concept of not objecting to privacy invasion if you have "nothing to hide" and have "done nothing wrong" makes me want to bite someone. Most of us don't want to live with unlimited surveillance and there are bad seeds and rogues in law enforcement who misuse and abuse their surveillance access to check on someone who has caught their attention. The wired/wireless world is setup to be anonymity-busting as it is, and full-pipe monitoring and mapping has been around for a very long time. It's ludicrous that valuing your privacy and civil liberties, freedom from snooping, would imply a person has something to hide or that objecting to such online spying means you are up to illicit or nefarious activities. The desire to be as anonymous as possible, which really is a contradiction when online, does not imply a person is a cyber-creep. Wired's David Kravets nailed it, "We're paranoid not because we have grandiose notions of our self-importance, but because the facts speak for themselves."

While I disagree with innocent people's private info floating around as a result of whacking companies and dumping data in the war against white hats, if a person were to sail over to The Pirate Bay and actually peruse this torrent, it's not too hard to get behind the publishing of surveillance guidelines aimed at us all. Cryptome and Public Intelligence have also published the online spying guides that regular folks aren't supposed to know about, spying that is to be 'balanced' against citizens' privacy.

Remember the FBI's claim of 'going dark'? Yeah right, about anything accessed via Windows machines like system and user data and apps, networking, Windows Internet-related data and logs from chat programs, IE or email [PDF] can be snooped through. Besides Big Brother in your browser, the treasure-trove of data we store in the cloud, and cell phone provider data storage, what more might be needed by law enforcement? BIOS password spying [PDF], Skype Log Files [PDF], Firefox Password Spying [PDF], iPod snooping [PDF], iChat [PDF], numerous iPhone guides, or magicJack surveillance [PDF]? There's also spy guides for MSN [PDF], Gmail 1 [PDF] and 2 [PDF], Facebook [PDF], Verizon [PDF], Time Warner Cable [PDF], Yahoo chat [PDF], World of Warcraft [PDF], Blizzard [PDF], or AOL [PDF]. It goes on and on; it's not that it's new by any means, simply that it seems endless and there's talk of finding balance between spying for security reasons and your rights.

Don't be surprised in the least to see these companies throwing around DMCA notices just as Microsoft did at Cryptome over the Microsoft Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook (zip). 

I don't think most people are "ok" with surveillance or censorship. The wise ones know enough to have their hackles raise when security is "balanced" against privacy concerns. When you hear 'balance' you are about to lose more civil liberties and have your privacy punted for your own protection of course. Yeah, yeah yeah security theater, surveillance, and the constant erosion of privacy and civil liberty rights shouldn't bother you if you've done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.


---
Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.