Loss of privacy leads to loss of freedom.
Your freedom of expression is threatened by the surveillance of your internet usage – thought patterns and intentions can be extrapolated from your website visits (rightly or wrongly), and the knowledge that you are being surveilled can make you less likely to research a particular topic. You lose that perspective, and your thought can be pushed in one direction as a result. Similarly, when the things you write online, or communicate privately to others, are surveilled, and you self-censor as a result, the rest of us lose your perspective, and the development of further ideas is stifled.
Your freedom of association is threatened by the surveillance of your communications online and by phone, and your freedom of assembly is threatened by the tracking of your location by your mobile phone. Can we afford to risk the benefits of free association, the social change brought by activists and campaigners, or the right to protest?
These freedoms are being eroded, right now. The effects will worsen over time, as each failure to exercise our freedom builds upon the last, and as more people experience the chilling effects.
I have been a software freedom advocate for some time now, and have worked on such issues as freedom for interactive websites and freedom in the social networking space. The work is not yet done in these areas, though great progress has been made. I, however, plan to shift my focus in 2015 down a few layers to the devices we use themselves. I have already been supporting amazing devices that greatly (if not completely) respect users’ freedom, such as:
Novena, a motherboard, battery control board, and laptop for hardware research, prototyping, and creation
Gluglug Laptops, refurbished laptops that respect your freedom in every aspect of the software
USB Armory, a freedom-respecting USB-powered computer for security applications
ZaReason Computers — most of their devices respect user freedom in all instruction executing on the CPU
And there are other devices which might be of interest as well, including the GCW Zero, a handheld gaming console, and FSF endorsed devices.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/kosagi/novena-open-laptop
http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/
https://www.crowdsupply.com/inverse-path/usb-armory
https://zareason.com/shop/home.php
http://www.gcw-zero.com/
https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom
The conclusion is clear: a program must not restrict what jobs its users do with it. Freedom zero must be complete. We need to stop torture, but we can't do it through software licenses. The proper job of software licenses is to establish and protect users' freedom.
The few major European telecom companies generally do not defend individual rights on the Internet access, as we can notice by their opposition to network neutrality enforcement and their lack of care regarding dark zones and the "digital divide", as their investments follow their profit scheme rather than pursuing better Internet access for everyone.
In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. A year ago this month one of that movement's leaders, Aaron Swartz, tragically passed away.
Today we face a different threat, one that undermines the Internet, and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.
If Aaron were alive, he'd be on the front lines, fighting against a world in which governments observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action.
Now, on the anniversary of Aaron's passing, and in celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA that he helped make possible, we are planning a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.
Interview de Falkvinge à propos des libertés individuelles
There have always been leaks, of course, and there would no doubt continue to be leaks even if WikiLeaks didn’t exist. The legendary Watergate investigation and the release of the famous Pentagon Papers both happened without WikiLeaks, or even the internet. But there’s also no question that having a repository for such documents that is both anonymous (or as close as it is possible to get) and largely stateless would make it easier for such leaks to occur.
Daniel Ellsberg, the former Defence Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 — and later became part of one of the most ground-breaking First Amendment trials in history — has said that Manning and WikiLeaks are carrying on the same tradition he was a part of: namely, the quest to hold the government accountable for its actions. Since the media seem reluctant to play the role they should in this effort, Ellsberg says, WikiLeaks becomes even more necessary.
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks itself is struggling — in part because of Assange’s legal issues, as well as a lack of funding that was exacerbated when PayPal, Visa and MasterCard cut off the ability to donate to the organization, despite the fact that WikiLeaks hasn’t been accused of a crime. And viable alternatives have not yet emerged (a splinter group headed by a former WikiLeaks lieutenant tried to set up a competitor called OpenLeaks without much success, and the New Yorker recently launched its own effort called StrongBox).
Frank La Rue, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion delivered this week a landmark report [PDF] on state surveillance and freedom of expression. In preparation, the Special Rapporteur reviewed relevant studies, consulted with experts including EFF, and participated in the state surveillance and human rights workshop we organized last year. Today, EFF's Katitza Rodriguez has been taking part in the first detailed conversation about State Surveillance and Human Rights at the U.N., held by the 47 member states of the Human Rights Council during the U.N.'s 23th session in Geneva.
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Media that spy on and data-mine the public are capable of destroying humanity's most precious freedom: freedom of thought. Ensuring that media remain structured to support rather than suppress individual freedom and civic virtue requires us to achieve specific free technology and free culture goals. Our existing achievements in these directions are under assault from companies trying to bottleneck human communications or own our common culture, and states eager to control their subjects' minds. In this talk--one of a series beginning with "The dotCommunist Manifesto" and "Die Gedanken Sind Frei"--I offer some suggestions about how the Free World should meet the challenges of the next decade.
During the first day, moderator Emily Taylor will initially take us through an opening session, mapping the state of play regarding Internet freedom in the global debate. What is the general picture? What happened since last Stockholm Internet forum? Etc.
Second session of the day is about Reconciling freedom and security in cyberspace, a seminar aiming to bring forward most aspects of online security.
However, security on the net is complex, containing not one animal, but several.
People in green may focus on cyber warfare, police may focus on being efficient in their crime prevention, business interests may defend itself from espionage or just theft. Internet users may regard Internet security as safeguarding privacy, etc.
There is a multitude of societal aspects under the general umbrella of online security, and all need to be balanced. Discussions take Internet end user as starting point, thus security on the net, rather than security of the net.
Next Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote yes to a report calling for a legislative ban on all pornography in “media”. This “media” is worded to include the internet, and is broad and vague enough to include photos you take of yourself and send to friends, as well as simple text messaging. This horrendous attack on our fundamental freedoms of speech and expression needs action now.
On Monday 4 March, EDRi celebrated its 10th anniversary at the European Parliament in Brussels. To mark the occasion, EDRi held a meeting with European Commission Vice-President, Viviane Reding. The Vice-President is responsible for the Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship portfolio in the Commission.
"As EU Commissioner in charge of the Information Society and now as EU Commissioner for Justice, I have worked together with the European Digital Rights organisation for many years," she said. "Thanks to our joint efforts we have made sure that the internet could not be blocked and that data protection standards remain high in Europe. Today we are celebrating EDRi's 10th anniversary. Congratulations for 10 years of great work! I look forward to continuing our joint efforts for strong data protection rules in Europe. EDRi's continuous support is crucial to make sure that the fundamental right to data protection is properly protected in our European Union."
The theme of the meeting was "Mainstreaming digital rights in European policy-making – 10 years on". The topic is of central importance to both EDRi and its 35 member organisations and has been a key priority for Vice-President Reding during her current term of office. As a practical step to "mainstream" the European Charter for Fundamental Rights into the policy development of the Commission, Vice-President Reding launched the "Strategy for the effective implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights" by the European Union in 2010.
"EDRi’s role is to insist on the protection of citizens’ rights in European Union policy-making and implementation in the Member States," said Joe McNamee, Executive Director of EDRi. "Over the past ten years, we have established ourselves as a constructive, expert and demanding partner in the development of relevant policies. We look forward to building on this strong legacy as we head into the next decade of defence of human rights in the digital environment."
Dans les locaux de la quadrature du net, Jean-Marc questionne Jérémie Zimmeman à propos de la dictature du copyright
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et plus encore
«"C'est devenu une marque de fabrique des régimes qui chutent : réduire les critiques au silence et paralyser les communications en coupant Internet. La Libye l'a fait. L'Egypte aussi. La semaine dernière, c'est la Syrie qui a débranché son propre réseau", assène le magazine américain Wired.»
Panel talk by Christopher Kullenberg on "Our Internet - Our Rights, Our Freedoms"
Towards the Council of Europe Strategy on Internet Governance 2012 - 2015