[governance] USG-war-itself-over-civil-liberties

[Guru गुरु]

Over the past year, the United States government has been in the news a 
lot for its efforts to undermine the Internet's basic privacy and 
security protocols.

There were the Edward Snowden revelations about the National Security 
Agency sweeping up metadata, paying contractors to embed backdoors into 
their security technologies, hacking various private accounts of network 
administrators and developing malware to infect computers. There was the 
Washington Post story about the NSA's "collect it all" ideology. There 
was the CNET story detailing the government's efforts "to obtain the 
master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of 
users' private Web communications from eavesdropping."

And there was the ProPublica story detailing how "The National Security 
Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using 
supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes 
persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of 
everyday communications."

So with all that in mind, it seems more than a bit hilarious that the 
U.S. government has just posted its latest annual announcement about 
"funding for programs that support Internet freedom." In that dispatch, 
the U.S. State Department says it is looking to support "technologies 
that enhance the privacy and security of digital communications" and 
that are "less susceptible to intrusion or infection."

Yes, you read that right: The same U.S. government that has been one of 
the most powerful forces undermining Internet security is now touting 
itself as a proponent of Internet privacy and security. Of course, when 
you are done laughing about this, remember that there may also be other, 
less funny subtexts to this story.

Read more at 
http://www.nationofchange.org/us-government-war-itself-over-civil-liberties-1403355879

Guru

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