Intelligence Gathering and the Unowned Internet

The Berkman Center at Harvard has hosted a 90 minute discussion on  Intelligence Gathering and the Unowned Internet involving Yochai Benkler, Bruce Schneier and Jonathan Zittrain, Terry Fisher plus John DeLong and Anne Neuberger the latter two being from the National Security Agency.



The video is essential viewing and John Naughton's thoughts triggered by the discussion are also well worth a further 5 to 10 minutes of your time.

Cory Doctorow & Barton Gellman at SXSW

Cory Doctorow and Barton Gellman discussing Edward Snowden, secure communications, encryption tools so easy your boss can use them, privacy, the revealing nature of metadata and mass surveillance, at SXSW should be required viewing.

Snowden quizzes Putin about mass surveillance on Russian TV

Edward Snowden just got to quiz Russian president Vladimir Putin about whether Russia engages in mass surveillance...


Guess what? Major surprise. Putin said no they don't. They fight crime and terrorism not like the rich Americans by spying on everyone but by engaging in surveillance controlled by the rule of law.

Call me a skeptic but it's a little unlikely Mr Putin has not heard of SORM not to mention a variety of other unethical surveillance and intelligence practices.

It is disappointing Edward Snowden would get sucked into such a publicity stunt though I guess he would not have had a lot of choice in the matter.

Update: Edward Snowden has defended his decision to participate in the TV show with Putin. In fairness, he makes a good case.

Suing the state: hidden rules within the EU-US trade deal

Thanks to Glyn Moody for pointing me at this excellent short video explaining the dangers of the investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the proposed EU-US trade deal.



Additionally it is really worth reading Corporate Europe Observatory's excellent analysis of ISDS, Still not loving ISDS: 10 reasons to oppose investors’ super-rights in EU trade deals.

ORG Stop UK Internet Censorship Campaign

The Open Rights Group want to launch a campaign to educate the public about the dangers of software filters.



They need help to accumulate the requisite finances.

UK media ignore Guardian's Pulitzer Prize

We learned last night that the Guardian and the Washington Post have shared the Pulitzer prize for public service for their stories, based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, on the US and UK governments' mass surveillance practices.

The story of the award has topped the news agenda all over the world - NYT, LA Times, The Times of Israel, Le Monde. The Times of India, even Fox News offered grudging repect whilst not missing the chance to denigrate Snowden.

In the UK the accolade has been ignored by The Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, though it got coverage from the BBC, The Indpendent and the FT.

A reminder. perhaps, of the need, always, to be alert to the underlying agenda(/s), motives and values of the controlling mind(/s) of the organisations from which we source our news.