Canadian Telcos Secretly Supporting Internet Surveillance Legislation 79
An anonymous reader writes "Canada's proposed Internet surveillance was back in the news last week after speculation grew that government intends to keep the bill in legislative limbo until it dies on the order paper. This morning,
Michael Geist reports that nearly all of the major Canadian telecom and cable companies have been secretly working with the government for months on the Internet surveillance bill. The secret group has been given access to a 17-page outline (PDF) of planned regulations and raised questions of surveillance of social networks and cloud computing facilities."
Telcos in *every* country supporting surveillance (Score:5, Insightful)
If you think the telcos and ISP's in your country are the exception, you're kidding yourself.
Slashdot's double standard (Score:1, Insightful)
Slashdot on government: "How dare governments track everything we do! This is outrageous!"
Slashdot on Google: "Eh, whatever. I willingly let them index my browsing history, search history, email, voice mail, text messages, online purchases, and even archive my mom's passwords on her unencrypted WiFi. How dare the government investigate them for privacy violations."
Telcos are usually content distributors (Score:5, Insightful)
All of these companies need to be forced to separate their old business from the new business with the understanding that the new company's goal is to be the best pipe possible and not to try propping up their old business models. Otherwise the interests of these companies is in direct conflict with the interests of a modern Canadian population. Check out the rates and services of 3rd world Caribbean countries and it is mind boggling. Jamaica offers 6Mbs unlimited cellular Internet for $40 US a month. The sell a D-Link router for you to have Wi-Fi for all the devices in your house. Canadian companies get all wound up about tethering your smart phone to a laptop because you might actually use some data that way.
Their arguments keep going on and on about how they need to spend so many billions on infrastructure and these high rates are justified to pay for that. I guess we need the Jamaicans to come up and show us how to do it right.
Re:Telcos in *every* country supporting surveillan (Score:4, Insightful)
the Internet is not just the new "media". It is also a channel for private communication.
Up to a few years back, private peer-to-peer communication (paper letters) was really private. (At least in The Netherlands we have strict laws on secrecy of correspondence.) Nowadays, chats, emails and everything else is being monitored.
Re:Telcos in *every* country supporting surveillan (Score:3, Insightful)
It is also a channel for private communication.
Yes! But people are refusing to use it as such.
Tools to make it suitable for private communication have been available for 15 years or so, yet people not only refuse to use them, they actively go the OTHER direction - moving more and more of their private communication onto services designed explicitly to make it NOT private. Using facebook, google mail, and other such things for what could actually be private if they cared.
End to end encryption is the only way to ensure privacy. It is available in everything from instant messaging to email, yet I bet not one person in thousands uses it.
That's why privacy on the internet is dead. Nobody acted to save it when it was clear the direction was towards ever more government and commercial monitoring.
Re:Michael Geist (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess unlike you, some Slashdot users actually think teaching *is* a real job. Go back to your Santorum rallies if you want to talk to someone who thinks a college education makes you "elitist".
Re:Telcos in *every* country supporting surveillan (Score:5, Insightful)
Money. The telcos / cable companies have competing businesses.
For example, as I posted in the "Who's Pirating Game of Thrones?" thread, it costs a Canadian with Shaw about a grand to watch HBO in HD after taxes, fees, DVR rental, service upgrades, etc. It might be cheaper in other markets, but you have to remember that you can't trust what Bell or Rogers say on their website.
Pay-Per-View the latest release for $5.95 (plus the required minimum service levels, a box to support the service, etc)! Netflix is cheaper? Well, we're the content licencer for that show in Canada so we won't let Netflix show it up here. Sorry, did I say $5.95?
Now they can see if someone is getting the shows for free and turn them in to the regulatory agency / Crown prosecutors without any oversight, warrants, or anything else. You pay the telco / cableco their protection racket money and you don't get sent to prison for five years.
100% of the costs on this service will be simply added onto the monthly bills of every ISP, cell phone, and land-line in the country, and that's if you're lucky. It'll likely end up being double the actual cost. Moreover, the PC party will be able to say "see, it's not costing taxpayers a penny, the whole thing is set up so that the offenders pay for everything."
Man, this post is incoherent.