The imposition of the ASPEN Card on those who are marginalised and unable to resist is no accident. It enables the UK Home Office and those they work with (in this case Sodexo) to test and develop new forms of surveillance.
After human rights groups challenged the government for its mass surveillance infrastructure, they were themselves illegally spied on. Illegal state spying jeopardises all our freedoms, and must be stopped.
People from the freedom of expression, privacy and media development communities must get engaged, to ensure that one of the most important communications platforms ever invented remains open, pluralistic and democratic.
The question of how to secure research data in times of large-scale online surveillance remains unaddressed. CryptoParties might offer a preliminary solution.
Administrative decisions related to the country’s telecommunications policy often go unnoticed by the majority of the US citizenry. But now, net neutrality in its purest form is in peril.
The right to anonymity, whilst always promoted by accountability mechanisms has never allowed witnesses to give evidence without ever having to identify themselves to some sort of authority.
In this rapidly expanding internet, the kinds of rights we need are often difficult to pin down – though pin them down we must if they are to be protected.
