Norway follows Britain and the US - Mass surveillance coming soon, near you!

in #surveillance7 years ago

24/7 Surveillance of every citizen, nothing more, nothing less.

Mass surveillance of all data traffic in and out of the country should be introduced in Norway. Not only metadata but also the content. With a storage time of up to eighteen months.

This is the conclusion of the Lysne II Committee in its report on the so-called "digital border defense", which was handed over to the parliament in September this year.
The Commission takes the same report calling for a broad debate about privacy conditions.
This is due to the many new "terror security packages" Norway has introduced since 2001. Parliament has for years passed new controversial coercive measures and laws that erodes privacy and the law.

The report does not deny that the Congress "have pushed the limits of the offense" and introduced "more intrusive methods." If the committee proposes the most extreme monitoring mechanisms with systematic monitoring of the entire population, it is no wonder that they call for debate.

Violation of the constitution

The methods proposed violates the Constitution, paragraph 102, which reads "Everyone has the right to have respect for his private and family life, his home and his communications. House searches must not take place, except in criminal cases. State authorities should ensure the protection of personal integrity. "

A few newspapers have reacted strongly against the proposals that will provide a state monitoring regime second to none, but then it stopped.
The Orwellian term "digital boundary defense" mentioned in Norwegian newspapers 27 times so far, showing a quick search in the media database Retriever. If we include online newspapers we are gathered up in less than 80 hits. Licorice Pipes has to Compare 1100 hits.
The media have their priorities in place it seems...

There is still some time left to change this

Sometime next year should Congress will consider introducing detailed surveillance of every citizen 24 hours a day. Nothing less. Lysne-committee chairman, Professor Olav Lysne, have reason to be disappointed by the lack of debate so far, but this will hopefully change rapidly.
The debate will flare up with full force when the consultation ends on January 6. Then we are also over in an election year, where privacy conditions and what kind of information society we want to live in should get plenty of attention.

My thoughts


The problem is all that most people have got an attitude where you think you do not need to fear anything as long as one does not actually have anything to hide. Few people care about such monitoring, the bloggers who write about boobs, thighs and lottery winnings, while they put out a full address and information about the next vacation on Facebook, right next to the pictures of their child's birth and political meetings.
Those who are concerned about privacy is seen most often as paranoid fools with foil hat, which no one bothered to listen.
I do not understand why people still believe in politicians and why they take them seriously. People in the western world is beginning to realize that democracy is not to be trusted. People are rebelling in a last desperate attempt to make democracy work at their side.
Mass surveillance won't capture more criminals. Those who know what they are doing are hiding under the radar and get the job done anyway. One will probably just stop the idiots that would have been caught my traditional police work.

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The thing people does not think about when they say: "I have nothing to hide," is that this system is used to scare of whistle-blowers and news sources. Journalists report that they have a hard time getting people to tell, even anonymously, about corruption. The US is not ruled by Obama or Trump, but by a corrupt congress and a cynic military intelligence community.

Such a dangerous trend with mass surveillance and loss of privacy...humanity needs a new Internet.

It sure is.
We need the internet we had in the end of the 90's. A wild west.

Absolutely! I have high hopes for meshnets, cryptography, Tor, MaidSafe, and all the other similarly minded projects...