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Privacy and rights... gone! Get over it

Reports in this morning's media indicate that Google and Microsoft are far less than pleased with the provisions of the proposed new TICS bill that the National-led government wants to push through parliament.

As Google points out, complying with the diktats of the GCSB could see them caught between a rock and a hard place, since such actions might conflict with the legal obligations imposed by their own governments.

The TICS bill not only legalises existing "unlawful actions" on the part of GCSB, it also significantly expands the methods available to them when they wish to engage in surveillance.

If TICS is passed into law, ISPs will be added to the list of organisations which are required to make their networks available to the GCSB.

I see the world being a very different place in a few years, if governments are allowed to railroad their ways deeper into our private lives and inflict all manner of draconian controls over our electronic freedoms.

It should be remembered that the TPPA is still alive and well, with negotiations continuing and the unpleasant prospect that NZ's copyright laws will be brought strongly into line with those of the USA in the not-too-distant future.

So what can we, as law-abiding Kiwis who simply want to preserve the basic human right to privacy, do?

I've talked about the prospect of an alternative internet, created and run by those who use it. Right now I even have a couple of Raspberry Pi computers here which I have been planning to turn into "nodes" of such a network -- using lasers and/or WiFi as the communications channel.

But now we hear that the government is going to ban lasers of more than 5mW. Coincidence?

Unfortunately, with the proliferation of readily available UFB connectivity here in Tokoroa and a relatively low-tech population, the chances of setting up an alternative Citizens' Net here is pretty small. However, I wonder if there are other parts of the country where such an initiative might sufficient wings to fly?

Of course I'm just kidding myself. Even if such a network were implemented and grew to cover the nation, the government of the day would almost certainly consider it to be a threat to national security and make it illegal (as they intend to do with those lasers and have they have already done with those neodymium magnet clusters).

The reality is that we, as mere citizens, have no power at all.

Sure, we can vote-in a different government - but we will still find ourselves at the mercy of a tiny group of people with different priorities and agendas to those of the public who have elected them.

Perhaps the most sensible approach is just to mourn the loss of privacy and other rights, then simply accept that loss and move on (at least that's what I'll say publicly) :-)

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