Thursday, 24 September 2015

The Surveillance Society.

       Big business and state apparatus will always be found to be holding hands, it is a festering marriage that destroys any semblance of democracy. Big business buys governments, governments give the stamp of legitimacy to the big business's plundering of the earth. Both agree that the populace must be kept under control, otherwise their partnership of greed and corruption collapses. Whatever foul deed they get involved in should not surprise us, our only answer to this cancerous marriage is the destruction of the present economic system. Though the fight to get that desired end will take many different shapes, we should not lose sight of the fact that if we want freedom, justice, peace, sustainability, and a society that sees to the needs of all our people, then each battle should be with that destruction of the economic system in mind.
     Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Salesforce, Symantec, and a handful of other companies just betrayed billions of people and publicly aligned themselves with spy agencies like the NSA.1
        We tend to be pretty skeptical, so it’s hard for tech companies to shock us. But this latest development is significant because these companies aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they’re lobbying for MORE government spying, and asking for government handouts and protection if they play nice.
      Here are the facts: last week, this group of companies sent a letter to Congress endorsing bills like CISA—the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. It’s a dangerous bill that security experts say will erode our privacy while actually making our data less secure.2
      So why are these companies pushing for it? Because the government is offering legal immunity to companies that share private user information with dozens of government agencies.
       We need to act now because if we don’t respond swiftly and loudly, more companies will jump on the bandwagon and sell out their users privacy in exchange for government protection. If more major companies endorse CISA, it will be almost impossible to stop it in Congress.
      We have an opportunity right now, but it won’t last long. If we can create a massive public backlash and make these companies regret endorsing CISA, we can make sure that no other companies are willing to betray their users so publicly, and send a message to Congress that this is still a supremely unpopular bill, no matter what Microsoft and Apple’s lobbyists say.
    Thanks for all you do. More on this soon.
~ Evan at Fight for the Future
P.S. We’re a small group of activists who consistently take on and win huge campaigns — chip in $5 to help us make sure we have the resources we need to beat these companies.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

No comments:

Post a Comment