Stories about Surveillance from November, 2012
Open letter to Marissa Mayer: HTTPS for all Yahoo! communications services now!
After the celebrated appointment of Marisa Mayer as CEO of Yahoo!, the new leadership has the opportunity to fix an urgent matter: Yahoo! Mail is the only major web-based e-mail service that continues to rely on insecure connections. Google enabled default Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), a widely used communications protocol...
Azerbaijan: “A Country that Portrays Social-Networkers as Mentally Ill”
While all eyes were on the presidential election in the United States, a major international conference started on Tuesday in Baku, the capital of the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. The 7th United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) claims to bring “all stakeholders” as equal partners to discuss major issues relating not only to the future of the Internet but also to matters of policing, management, and of course, freedom of expression online.
Protecting the Open Web: Net Activists Unite
Netizens around the world are coordinating advocacy on the upcoming conference of the International Telecommunication Union, where member states will decide whether or not the ITU should cover Internet-policy matters—leaked treaty documents include proposals for global regulations that could place limitations on online privacy, free expression, access to information and ICT use around the world. Find out how you can get involved in the effort.
Azerbaijan: Open Letter to President Aliyev Ahead of International Governance Forum in Baku
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a UN-sponsored conference which aims to “bring[ ] together all stakeholders in the internet governance debate.” This year it is held in Baku, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan where, starting on Tuesday, government officials, representatives of the private sector, the...
EU to Tighten Rules on Surveillance Technology Exports
“It is unacceptable that regimes in Syria and Iran can use European technologies to violate human rights”. Marietje Schaake Activists have been fighting the battle against technology exports to repressive countries for years. To track and surveil citizens online, regimes such as Mubarak´s in Egypt or Assad´s in Syria have relied...