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04/21/2005 Archived Entry: "Coalition forms to fight global surveillance and tracking"

WELL, NO S--T, SHERLOCK. An international coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups says we're headed for a global regime of surveillance and tracking, which won't make us safe, but will destroy our freedom.

This time, though, they're not just crying one more alarm. This time the heavyweights have thrown themselves right at the monster:

On the back of the report the groups have, with the support of around 100 civil liberties groups and NGOs world-wide, launched the International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS), which will campaign against mass surveillance-oriented anti-terrorism efforts. Commented Statewatch director Tony Bunyan: "Our message is that mandatory registration and mass surveillance are not the answers to the problem of terrorism, and not a road that any nation should be heading down. What is needed is good intelligence on specific threats - not the so-called 'risk-profiling' of entire populations and the generation of more information than can possibly be usefully analysed. There is a real danger that in trying to watch everyone you are actually watching no-one."

I'd been feeling lately as though the privacy and freedom battle would be lost, and that all that would be left was for a few of us maverick individuals to fight until we die -- then leave the world in the hands of slave-holders. I figured there'd be some token victories and a few useless bureaucratic concessions to pseudo privacy, but overall, nothing but long, slow defeat, with billions going willingly, not even knowing what they surrendered.

Maybe so.

But this ... at least now there's a chance of an interesting battle.

Posted by Claire @ 11:06 PM CST
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