Before and after anti-terror laws...

Mass surveillance simply does not work

The clip above is from the European Parliaments hearings on mass surveillance. Swedish Pirate Party MEP Christian Engström asks US Representative Jim Sensenbrenner if NSA surveillance has brought any terrorists to justice.

And here you have it: NSA global mass surveillance has led to NO convictions of actual terrorists in a court of law.

There has been one case, where a US cab driver tried to send USD 8,000 to a terrorist labeled organisation in Africa. He was convicted. But no real terrorists have been caught and convicted.

[Direct link to the clip »]

Privacy - the Political Divider

Privacy issues are political dividers.

Either you take the classical liberal stand – that citizens are individuals, who should be judged by their actions.

Or you choose a socialist or conservative stand – where citizens are to be seen and treated as a collective.

Almost no one denies the need for surveillance when it comes to people who are suspected for serious crime (or obvious preparation of such crimes).

The issue is if you want surveillance of all citizens, all the time. Just in case.

The public Big Brother-discourse seems to focus on things like terrorism, drug carteles, human trafficking, sexual abuse of children, public order and similar all alarming issues.

But the justification for surveillance has nothing to do with the approach to it as such. Everything can be excused. Practically everything.

How ever, we cannot draw the line on a case to case basis. Because the boundaries of what our elected representatives deem to be acceptable or not keeps changing depending on time, zeitgeist and place. There are no guarantees that the ruling classes will use surveillance only for reasonable purposes, at all times.

We must draw a line that stands on principle.

Surveillance should only be used if there is a tangible notion about a crime being committed or about to be committed.

When this principle is established – but at no earlier point – we can take on the day to day discussion about what should be legal and illegal. That is a never ending and ever changing process.

But first, we must accept and respect the right to privacy as a fundamental human right.

Today's day by day and case by case approach will with absolute certainty lead to the right to privacy being hollowed out all together. You need only to give politics a glance to understand that.

A society without the right to privacy will be a highly unpleasant, hostile and dangerous society. Not least for the innocent.

We, the people, must demand our right to privacy back. Because no one else will do it for us.

[In Swedish]

Podcast: PNR

PNR, Passenger Name Records, is information about you and your travels that is stored the moment you buy e.g. an airline ticket.

In this podcast I talk to Edward Hasbrouck and Erik Josefsson about how PNR works and about the implications when it comes to privacy. This spring, European Parliament will decide how PNR is to be used in the future.

The MP3-file for this podcast. XML/RSS for my earlier podcasts (mostly in Swedish).

Edward Hasbroucks blog | Erik Josefssons blog

Orwellian

A soceity built on a supicious mindset...

Lex Orwell

Sorry about the relative silence on this site.

You get kind of paranoid in these days when the government is trying to legally break into your mailbox. The debate on "national security" and integrity has been enourmos the entire summer, in the UK, in Germany and especially in Sweden.

As for myself, well I'm now being investigated for espionage for taking on the government on the new Swedish snoop law – "Lex Orwell".

My doings have resulted in some international media. Please read the full story by Einar Du Rietz at Center for the New Europe and in The Local...

CNE 1 | 2 | 3
The Local 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10