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Rights and Wrongs It seems that unlike any other form of communication, if you use the Internet you have absolutely no right to privacy. At least, that's the feeling the governments of the world are giving me. There's the US Carnivore system of course, but then the New Zealand government's been making its own efforts too, with legislation allowing the Police and SIS to get their grubby hands on your email. And of course the British government, ever a world leader in snooping around its citizen's private affairs, has made special efforts to catch up in this highly contested arena. Not only are they considering keeping copies of all web/email traffic for seven years, but they even have legislation requiring you to hand over the keys to decode encrypted email. So what difference does all of this make? I mean, if you're a law abiding citizen, you have nothing to worry about, right? Well, I freely admit that my own email log could only provoke interest with security agencies if they decided my life could not possibly be that banal, and I must actually be using some secret code to communicate with Indonesian Intelligence (or whoever they're complaining about to justify their budget that week). And no doubt most of the rest of you are in the same position. So if you're not having secret communications with NAMBLA, you shouldn't have a problem. No worries. One word: Watergate. Just because you and I don't really have much worth the effort of hiding doesn't mean there aren't others with genuine concerns. Watergate's just one example of security agencies being used for what look decidedly like political purposes. I'm sure most of you can think of others, but the really worrying ones are those we haven't heard about. Do you really doubt that their out there? I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but nonetheless, I can't help worrying that there's been more than enough abuse of the existing surveillance powers. Do we really want to see governments giving themselves more of these? Hewligan "I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough. |
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