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What We Need to Learn from Snowden</h1>
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class=""
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- XLVIII No. 36, September 07, 2013 </span>| <span class=""
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href="http://www.epw.in/authors/richard-stallman"
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,51,102)">Richard
Stallman</a></span></span>
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href="http://www.epw.in/ejournal/term/1/_/taxonomy%3Aterm%3A13684"
rel="tag" title="Postscript is a back-of-the-book section
on the arts, culture and society that will be a compendium
of short pieces of reportage, commentary, criticism,
travel writing, cartoons, satire and more"
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<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">Only
by organising politically for human rights, including
privacy rights, can we raise awareness of the dangers of Big
Brother state surveillance.</p>
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<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">This
article, copyrighted to Richard Stallman (<a
href="mailto:rms@gnu.org"
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,51,102)">rms@gnu.org</a>),
President of the Free Software Foundation (<a
href="http://www.fsf.org/" title="www.fsf.org"
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,51,102)">www.fsf.org</a>)
and creator of the GNU operating system, is licensed under
the Creative Commons No Derivatives 3.0 License.</p>
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<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">Edward
Snowden heroically demonstrated to the world the extent to which
the United States (US) and some other countries have converted the
internet into a system for general surveillance of everyone. They
do this largely on the basis of corporations’ surveillance: even
if a company only wants to know what sort of ads to show you, the
data it collected will be available to Big Brother.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">We
knew already that tyrannical states such as China, Tunisia, Libya
and Iran did their utmost to monitor internet users. We had no
proof that “free” countries did it too. For years, I have said in
my speeches that I suspected the US government used the Patriot
Act periodically to collect all the personal data from certain
companies, simply because I saw that that law would permit it and
the US government tends to stretch its legal powers; however, such
suspicions are easy to dismiss as “paranoia”. Thanks to Snowden,
we know the US really does this with telephone companies.
Meanwhile, India plans to practise phone and internet surveillance
without even the flimsy “limits” that govern the National Security
Agency (NSA).</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">This
amounts to surveillance such as Stalin could only dream of. Even
he could not make a list of every conversation, every purchase,
every movement of every person. The US has nearly reached this
level. India, with its national identity cards, is headed the same
way. But it can get even worse.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">Manufacturers
of mobile devices now try to direct users to store their data in
companies’ servers instead of their own computers. If you’re
foolish enough to do this, the NSA can fish through your private
data. In addition, many proprietary programs and devices spy on
their users. On the Amazon Kindle, Amazon has access to all the
“marginal notes” that the user makes about a book. If you use
Windows, the NSA can break the security via bugs that Microsoft
has reported to the NSA but has not fixed. (See <a
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/"
title="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/"
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,51,102)">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-14/</a> u-s-agencies-said-to-swap-data-with-thousands-of-firms.html.)</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">The
US uses its massive surveillance to imprison the whistle-blowers
that inform us about government crimes such as torture and
massacres. When we cannot have secrets from the state, the state
can keep the most horrible things secret from us. Sad to say, the
US is not alone in this; India also commits plenty of torture and
massacres.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">Proposals
to increase the level of surveillance cite certain standard
reasons: typically, terrorism, pornography, or file-sharing.
Terrorism is a real danger, but it is a small danger when compared
to a state that the people can no longer control. As for
pornography and file-sharing, they should be legal – if you don’t
like them, don’t use them.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">You
can resist some of these forms of surveillance by limiting the
data that you let anyone collect about your daily activities.
Buying with a credit card informs the bank (and state
surveillance) what you bought and, if you’re in a store, where you
are; I pay cash. Carrying a mobile phone tells the phone company
(and state surveillance) everywhere you go; I refuse. Listening to
music from a server account tells the company (and state
surveillance) what you listen to, and may also restrict what you
can do with it; I keep copies on my own computers or media. I
don’t give personal data to websites, aside from when I post a
comment on one, and I avoid connecting my computer directly to
those sites.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">However,
it is impossible to fully avoid surveillance while using certain
sorts of digital technology. For instance, there is no way to do
email without surveillance. You can keep the contents of the
message private by encrypting it – for instance, with the GNU
Privacy Guard – but there is no way to stop Big Brother from
seeking out who you exchange mail with.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">We
can do better by organising collectively against surveillance.
This means campaigning to change laws so as to reduce general
surveillance.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">When
people organise such campaigns, typically, the first proposal is
to legally limit “access” to the accumulated data. This is
inadequate to solve the problem. When the state wants to find an
excuse to imprison a whistle-blower, it will find ways to satisfy
whatever requirements there are. To avoid the total surveillance
state, we need to limit the collection of data. Systems that log
activities must be designed not to keep personal identifying data
for very long, except when there is a prior court order to keep
the data about a particular person. We must replace the
advertising-based system for funding websites with an anonymous
method for paying to access a page.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">To
raise awareness of the issue, and invite the state’s surveillance
agents to search their consciences about what they are doing, I
now include the following note in most of my outgoing mail:</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">“To
any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider whether
defending the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign or
domestic, requires you to follow Snowden’s example.”</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">Here
I appeal to these agents in the name of their oath of office.
Snowden has demonstrated that surveillance agents can understand
that the Patriot Act is not the same as patriotism; they can
recognise their duty, and may have the courage to act on it.</p>
<p
style="outline-style:none!important;outline-width:initial!important;outline-color:initial!important;margin-top:1em;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px">However,
I do not expect large numbers of agents to follow their
consciences to oppose the wrongdoing of the state. To stop that
wrongdoing, we need to organise politically for human rights,
including privacy rights.</p>
<a
href="http://www.epw.in/postscript/what-we-need-learn-snowden.html">http://www.epw.in/postscript/what-we-need-learn-snowden.html</a>
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