UK branded an 'Enemy of the Internet'

[murah]

Sounds about right, but every block and every move our UK government make can be circumvented really easily. While I have nothing to hide I had nothing I wish to share either, if this is all to protect the children surely that is the job of the parents. I was raised with the internet and I didn't turn out a degenerate porn addicted junkie.
If a child with any sense of how to use a PC wants to see something, you are simply not going to stop them very easily!

 

[kitch9]

What do people do on the internet that they don't want secret services to see? They will be monitoring for keywords and certain patterns but they don't have the resources to read emails from your nan.

I do have an issue and am weird about having internet connected cameras pointing at me that I can't be sure is off though.

 

[No1newts]

This is as bad as jsmoke and his "I have nothing to fear as I've nothing to hide" approach.

Anyone who voices decent, just shout conspiracy and lizard men at them to turn them into a laughing stock.

One person started down the Orwellian road. One. Don't paint all the rest of our arguments and opinions with the same conspiracy brush, that's a very dangerous path to walk as it discredits those with real concerns.

No you turn yourself into a laughing stock with the arguements (not you personally I refer to general tone in te thread) if you go through he thread for every reasoned response there is a crazy sounding objection.

As I've said, which you glossed over as I'm assuming you cannot see beyond the froth, I do not think this is good. I think this needs to be challenged, however there are ways to go about it and "ZOMG THEY ARE WATCHING US ALL EVERY SECOND AND OUR LIVES HAVE EBDED OMGGGG!!!!" is not really conductive to reasoned debate which tends to be what is required to change things in the UK.

 

[LateX'Dog]

What do people do on the internet that they don't want secret services to see? They will be monitoring for keywords and certain patterns but they don't have the resources to read emails from your nan.

I do have an issue and am weird about having internet connected cameras pointing at me that I can't be sure is off though.

That would be ok, if that was all they did. But they are not, they are taking everything.

People seem to have forgot the purpose of the government, its to serve the people and not us serving it.

 

[OhEsEcks]

The only enemy of the internet is Snowden. Because of him now we're going to see huge government crack downs.

 

[LateX'Dog]

The only enemy of the internet is Snowden. Because of him now we're going to see huge government crack downs.

 

[SlyReaper]

No you turn yourself into a laughing stock with the arguements (not you personally I refer to general tone in te thread) if you go through he thread for every reasoned response there is a crazy sounding objection.

As I've said, which you glossed over as I'm assuming you cannot see beyond the froth, I do not think this is good. I think this needs to be challenged, however there are ways to go about it and "ZOMG THEY ARE WATCHING US ALL EVERY SECOND AND OUR LIVES HAVE EBDED OMGGGG!!!!" is not really conductive to reasoned debate which tends to be what is required to change things in the UK.

The reasoned argument is that the powers that be have already been caught abusing their surveillance capabilities. One example is collecting the porn habits of people they deemed to be "radicalisers" with a view to publishing that information to discredit them. These "radicalisers" weren't criminals or terrorists, just people who the security services didn't like very much. It's a very broad and ambiguous term which could apply to any dissenter or activist.

 

[OhEsEcks]

Stop watching shady porn and you will have nothing to fear from your government. Only have sex once a week in the missionary position with a loving wife.

 

[SGCWill]

I've tried to have conversations about this topic with my family and they all laugh and say things like "If you don't have anything to hide, then you've nothing to worry about". I've tried rebutting with "You say that, but when you've been fined and face possible prison time, because you ripped your copy of a dvd onto your pc, it wouldn't be a laughing matter" and they still laugh and say "Don't be stupid"

It was only a while ago that being homosexual was illegal - A personal choice (or not as some believe) and were punished by the state for it.

It all seems fine now, but how about when any ideological content not aligned with the state or majority of the people is deemed "immoral" and then eventually "illegal" - It's blocked from the internet because it is not on "the white-list".

When the technology of the internet gets to the stage it definitively identifies an individual looking at such topics, how long before you end up on trial - Not to defend your belief, but to defend your right to think as you wish without persecution - Will that be enough for people to realise what state intervention in personal belief and freedom of information leads to? No need for "Stars of David" when you've already been marked digitally instead.

That's certainly an extreme view, but all it takes is for the wrong person to be in power and it happens.

 

[LateX'Dog]

Thinking on the above, internet trolling can get you jail time. How long until trolling is illegal and identifiable back to the person? Extreme i know, but food for thought.

 

[OhEsEcks]

There's a difference between trolling and griefing. Trolling is a art.

 

[Zethor]

I think the problem here is that people don't understand what the function of the Internet actually is. It's important to consider that, the moment you put your details in the system, they get stored, often for a long time and in several places. The company that provides the services you use will have access to your details and, depending on laws and company norms, there's a number of things it can do with those details. The state authorities also have access to the details, as do criminals if they manage to break into the system somehow. Furthermore this isn't anything new as it has gone on since the first Bank opened or the first ID was issued - thousands of years.

True "privacy" on the Internet for the average Joe is a myth. You're not anonymous when you expose yourself on the Internet, much like you're not anonymous when you go to the mall and purchase an item - every step you've made can be traced from the moment you set foot in the parking lot to the moment you leave. Why should the Internet be different? It's a service like many others.

The main threat from Goverments comes in the shape of blocking certain sites or increasing the difficulty to access them. We should be worrying about things that happen in authoritarian/religious regimes, not the cat pictures the NSA or the GCHQ are storing on their servers.

 

[Random Guy]

IMO, the Snowden revelations have basically kicked off a very long term and critically - LARGE SCALE - fragmentation of the Internet's infrastructure from the backbone level. I say "large scale" because there is just no way that most "Tier 1" Technology States didn't already know about the potential for snooping and privacy issues. Now that this information is in the wild and basically EVERYONE knows about the potential smearing/malicious acts that can be perpetrated upon them by the powers that be, new forms of technology and approaches will emerge to combat this threat.

TLDR, by setting down this road, the UK/US/Big Five have simply ensured that they will make everything more difficult for themselves as the "real" national security threats will circumvent their surveillance while the rest of us now essentially fall beneath a surveillance state with 100 percent, 360-degree, digital fingerprinting and ID'ing of our online life. The choice for the "common man" is to succumb to this surveillance or to find a way to stop it (nearly impossible barring mass civil unrest IMO).

Just my 2 cents. Most people care most about protecting their livelihoods, their family and their friends (and rightly so). The process most of us need to follow right now is to determine what this new reality means for our lives and the lives of the generations that come after us.

 

[platypus]

Once they have collected whatever information they want too, they can essentially make anything a crime. Shame, the internet could have been so much more.

 

[platypus]

The choice for the "common man" is to succumb to this surveillance or to find a way to stop it (nearly impossible barring mass civil unrest IMO).

Correct, I'm unhappy with it but what can I do? I need to use emails, I need to use the phone, and whilst I know certain technological work arounds to eavesdropping I won't be able to stop the likes of GCHQ/NSA.

 

[LordSplodge]

The only enemy of the internet is Snowden. Because of him now we're going to see huge government crack downs.

Ignorance is not bliss. Thankfully we know know what scumbags Governments truly are.

Stop watching shady porn and you will have nothing to fear from your government. Only have sex once a week in the missionary position with a loving wife.

Sex? Loving? Wife? Does not compute.

 

[jsmoke]

Well I will admit after some research I didn't know the full extent of the snooping, would be interesting to see how they do it.

Their core goal is to thwart crime however, it's not like it's them and us, apparently the CIA, NSA, FBI have very little to do with each other and refer to each other by all kinds of names, not exactly the model of a unified authority against the public.

This is actually a bit analogous to the MKULTRA project. Back in the 50/60/70's when LSD was discovered, the CIA were afraid that their agents would be brainwashed to reveal information so they started an experiment testing out LSD on unsuspecting individuals. This turned into a full medical study where they attempted to replace the minds of people, particulary people with mental health issues, the whole thing went a bit nuts, with electroshock treatment, LSD dosage and various mind control/brainwashing techniques used. The whole experiment was eventually shut down by Congress.

So in a sense this is what they are doing with communications now, they are conducting an experiment to try and master every possible angle.