UN Human Rights Office: "government surveillance on rise worldwide"

in security on 2014-07-16 15:38 (#3QW)

We knew this, but now it's increasingly such a part of the written record that even the United Nations Office on Human Rights has made a statement.

Stepping into a fierce debate over digital privacy rights, the U.N. office says it has strong evidence of a growing complicity among private companies in government spying. It says governments around the world are using both the law and covert methods to access private content and metadata.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the lack of transparency and tactics extend to governments' "de facto coercion of companies to gain broad access to information and data on citizens without them knowing."

[Ed. note: So who are these private companies, and are they hiring? Because it seems like a bit of a growth industry at the moment: job security, woo hoo!]

it is difficult to get into the mindset (Score: 1)

by rocks@pipedot.org on 2014-07-17 06:25 (#2HC)

of the people who actually understand the ways they plan to exploit this data to control outcomes in society. I mean money and power are the usual suspects and I guess I understand how money and power give you the ability to have more things you want the way you want them, but at some level you want other people to have money and power too don't you? Don't you lose the ability to be surprised and challenged by peers if you obtain the ability to control all outcomes?

Re: it is difficult to get into the mindset (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-07-17 11:53 (#2HH)

I think currently the power is swinging strongly in the direction of governments and away from citizens and consumers (not the same thing, mind you: a pet peeve). And given that power, governments naturally err on the side of wanting more power, even before they have an actual need for that power. It's like saving it up, in case it's ever useful. (like bandwidth or CPU time) :)