Here in the U.S. we had the FBI spying on e-mail with Carnivore and then commercially sold software (government obviously sucks at creating snoopware). Our government relies on no-knock searches and secret courts to take care of “protecting us.” I’m sure some of this activity is legitimately done with good intentions but all of it violates the fourth amendment to our Constitution, as far as I’m concerned. As the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Anyhow, we Americans aren’t the only ones having our privacy invaded by government. The Europeans have it worse. France, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom are considering and pushing a requirement that will force ISPs to keep records of all phone and e-mail for all customers for 12-36 months. If this is passed, stand by for the cost of making a phone call or sending an e-mail to rise drastically in Europe.
To assert my privacy rights, I am now encrypting all my computer files. It isn’t that I have anything to hide, it’s just that I don’t feel any obligation to share anything I don’t want to share with the authorities just because they are the authorities. I am no more enthusiastic about freely sharing my private data than I would be about freely submitting to DNA testing on demand. Authoritarians are dangerous, and should be caged whenever possible to protect the rest of us from their desire to manage things that don’t need managing.
Jennifer at The Shout is thinking about privacy rights too:
Why research the law or have encryption software if you aren’t doing anything wrong? This is the disfavored interpretation that people are worried about. The second is that the encryption and expectation of police raids suggests that the defendant must have gotten rid of the incriminating pictures. “
Read the whole piece. It’s worth your time. Also, I highly recommend getting a copy of PGP 9 or some other encryption software while you still can legally do so. It’s important to assert your convictions. Just because some people are bad doesn’t mean I should be denied my privacy or be assumed to be a criminal. A society that doesn’t respect the individual and individual rights doesn’t deserve to exist.
If society is allowed to invade every facet of the existence of an individual at will or suspend the rights of an individual based on whether or not they are using encryption to protect a secret, I don’t want to be a part of it. I have a right to privacy and self-defense that outweighs society’s desire to control and monitor my behavior.