Surveillance

Surveillance all over the world is for ever increasing and a lot of the time, the majority of the population is oblivious to this unless they have a key interest in this area because most of the time, it is not reported on in the mainstream media. Some of this is for the better, for example, helping to catch villains and terrorists but the problem is when these tools start to infringe the privacy of the average law abiding citizen.

Twitter and Facebook, in essence, are a mass surveillance tool. Not only do we as a social population use it to survey, but so do the governments and businesses of the world. Privacy on the internet has in a way been lost, because we happily will post our lives on these social network sites free for anyone to see to a certain extent. Privacy also shrinks from the facebook team though, they are for ever updating and changing the privacy settings which can be majorly confusing for the average user. They have recently in the past few years started to notify users of these changes because of media uproar and condemnation but a lot of the times these notices fall on deaf ears. For example, in recent changes, third party companies can now access your mobile number and home addresses if you agree to the conditions of a facebook app or twitter app.

The problem with twitter and facebook is that the government agencies can invade our privacy freely because of these settings. This information is free for them and does not impede on any laws because a lot of the information is already accessible to the public, ultimately giving them the chance to bypass any laws and bills. A useful tool for the agencies is the gps tracking on smartphones, when you post a status on your mobile it will post where abouts in the country you were when you posted it if you wish to share your location. A stalker's delight.
The problem with these sites is that sometimes it is hard to see what is a joke and what is the truth (if your paranoid).Recently a british couple travelled to America where they were obtained upon arrival at the airport by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) because of Leigh Van Bryan's previous tweets before he entered the country. He had tweeted "'Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?". For friends and family this would of been an obvious joke about the couple going to party but because of the over zealous and paranoid agencies of the U.S.A, they put them in a prison cell along with mexican drug dealers for 12 hours. This is a blatant breach of privacy in the moral sense but in law this is perfectly legal and just. The other tweet was "3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p****** people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!" 

A recent global bill which is being run through the European parliament is the ACTA bill ( Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).  Currently 22 countries are supporting this bill but it seems that support for the bill is waning. This bill, they stress, is to help copyright law and protect innovators, entrepreneurs and technology. The problem with this bill is that the terms are very loosely written as with many bills, meaning that you could be liable to taxes or put in prison for things which are not illegal right now. Your privacy will be invaded even more so that it already is, but do we want this? ISP's (Internet Service providers) will be legally obliged to check every packet off data which is entering and leaving your computer, looking for incriminating files and counterfeit products. For example, if you learnt how to knit from a video you buy online and share this knowledge to someone else in your household you will be liable to the law because that product is copyrighted. This is going to be law. Crazy, right?       

                            This is a view from the Online hacker/activism group Anonymous.