From: Yona Maro
It is common knowledge that surveillance technologies keep us safe. But this common knowledge is based, at best, on shaky evidence. In the face of dangerous situations, emotions tend to trump logical decision making; reasoning goes that if even a single attack is prevented, the technology is worth having. Such reasoning is quite ill founded. Not only does surveillance technology not necessarily keep us safe, in many instances, surveillance technologies decrease our security.
Building surveillance tools into communications networks enables simpler forms of “insider” attack. In Italy, 6,000 judges, politicians and celebrities were illegally wiretapped between 1996 and 2006. During this period, one in every 10,00 Italians was wiretapped; no major political or business deal was ever private. For ten months in 2004-2005, 100 senior members of the Greek government, including the Prime Minister, were spied upon when the wiretapping capabilities of a Greek Vodafone switch were turned on by unknown parties.
The technologies revealed today by Privacy International – the hacking tools that allow an investigator to download spyware onto a target’s computer, the interception tools that allow instant automatic search for “communications of interest” the data mining tools that allow profiling of a user – build a picture of a surveillance industry gone wild – an industry that seeks to provide tools without understanding the huge potential for harm.
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