Reset the Net: One year anniversary of Snowden leaks
Posted by: Jon Ben-Mayor on 06/05/2014 07:48 AM [ Comments ]
The revelations that Edward Snowden caused by leaking the voluminous bits of secret surveillance documents sent ripples into every facet of what we do and how we do it on the internet, nothing will, or should be the same again.
So, today the rally cry is Reset the Net, which is a movement to shut off the prying eyes of the big bad government surveillance machine by using new technology that will directly interfere with these surveillance attempts. With that, there are things that you can do; websites can add SSL. Email services can add START-TLS. Large companies must encrypt links between data centers.
The day of action to “Reset The Net” is today, the anniversary of the first NSA surveillance story revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Tens of thousands of internet activists, companies and organizations committed to preserving free speech and basic rights on the Internet by taking steps to shutting off the government’s mass surveillance capabilities.
First, there are tons of ways to fight back against NSA surveillance. Anything that makes the Internet or individuals using it safer and more secure makes mass surveillance harder, for the NSA and for any other government.
It can start with you. These super-easy encryption tools let you talk, chat, and text with pretty strong privacy. If everyone used them, Reset the Net urges, that would go a long way to shutting down mass surveillance. So, be the first. And tell your friends. In the end, beating the NSA could be that simple.
At the same time, we need to think about scale: how can we get absolutely massive numbers of people using end-to-end encryption? What’s your best soapbox? What’s the biggest circle of people you can get to where, if you showed them a way to take back their privacy, they’d listen, and try it out?
There is no reason why a free software app with end-to-end crypto can’t get as popular as Skype or Whatsapp. Got the skills? Start fresh now, help make an existing app more popular & viral, or add strong crypto to an already-popular product.
Check out the Reset the Net page and see what you can do to help disrupt government surveillance.
The day of action to “Reset The Net” is today, the anniversary of the first NSA surveillance story revealed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Tens of thousands of internet activists, companies and organizations committed to preserving free speech and basic rights on the Internet by taking steps to shutting off the government’s mass surveillance capabilities.
First, there are tons of ways to fight back against NSA surveillance. Anything that makes the Internet or individuals using it safer and more secure makes mass surveillance harder, for the NSA and for any other government.
It can start with you. These super-easy encryption tools let you talk, chat, and text with pretty strong privacy. If everyone used them, Reset the Net urges, that would go a long way to shutting down mass surveillance. So, be the first. And tell your friends. In the end, beating the NSA could be that simple.
At the same time, we need to think about scale: how can we get absolutely massive numbers of people using end-to-end encryption? What’s your best soapbox? What’s the biggest circle of people you can get to where, if you showed them a way to take back their privacy, they’d listen, and try it out?
There is no reason why a free software app with end-to-end crypto can’t get as popular as Skype or Whatsapp. Got the skills? Start fresh now, help make an existing app more popular & viral, or add strong crypto to an already-popular product.
Check out the Reset the Net page and see what you can do to help disrupt government surveillance.
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