The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014 Don’t Spy on Us: #TheDayWeFightBack | What's On | Free Word Centre Tue 11 Feb 2014, 7:00pm Free Word Lecture Theatre Join English PEN and Open Rights Group on a day of global protest against mass surveillance, as civil liberties groups and activists around the world unite to defend privacy and freedom of expression online. Since Edward Snowden’s first revelations about the National Security Agency’s collection of US data last summer, the British public has witnessed a series of alarming disclosures regarding the extent of the surveillance programmes operated by US and UK intelligence services. Guest speakers from leading privacy, freedom of expression and human rights groups in the UK will announce a new coalition, Don’t Spy On Us, calling for legal reform and judicial oversight of the intelligence service’s mass surveillance programme. This event is FREE, with a bar, live demonstrations and keynote speakers.
Spy Agencies Probe Angry Birds and Other Apps for Personal Data When a smartphone user opens Angry Birds, the popular game application, and starts slinging birds at chortling green pigs, spy agencies have plotted how to lurk in the background to snatch data revealing the player’s location, age, sex and other personal information, according to secret British intelligence documents. In their globe-spanning surveillance for terrorism suspects and other targets, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have been trying to exploit a basic byproduct of modern telecommunications: With each new generation of mobile phone technology, ever greater amounts of personal data pour onto networks where spies can pick it up. According to dozens of previously undisclosed classified documents, among the most valuable of those unintended intelligence tools are so-called leaky apps that spew everything from users’ smartphone identification codes to where they have been that day. The scale and the specifics of the data haul are not clear. Detailed Profiles
Brazilian Activists Fight Back Against Mass Surveillance As the world comes together to take a stand against mass surveillance on February 11, 2014, Brazilian citizens, organizations and collectives are bringing momentum to #TheDayWeFightBack campaign. Anti-surveillance collective Antivigilancia.tk (@antivigilancia on Twitter), one of the 15 Brazilian signatories of the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, has a website with complete information in Portuguese on how to participate in #TheDayWeFightBack, as well as several resources for the day of action, such as banners and memes. Cartoon by Latuff with D'Incao (2013). Well-known Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff took on the challenge launched by Web We Want early in February to create original visual works on digital surveillance and the right to privacy. Cartoon by Latuff with Operamundi (2013). All submissions to the Web We Want contest are available on Flickr.
Google+ - We’re standing up with the web on #thedaywefightback to… +Richard Lee : do you realize that with a single comment you have bashed both the citizens who are participating in an international initiative and the companies that are promoting it because, in your opinion, the most important thing was to promote your article? Do you really think that people who read your comment will perceive you as someone who cares about others? My suggestion, whenever you see someone who tries to do something good, is to appreciate their effort, even if you perceive them as a political opponent to bash at any occasion. At the end of the day, a world-wide initiative where citizens and companies work together to reach a goal, is way more concrete than your article.
Art for the Soul Richard Lazzara,owner: Shankar Gallery:"Art for the Soul" Tuesday, February 11, 2014 Art for the Soul by Richard Lazzara on absolutearts.com Buy My Photos ClusterShot Now You Can Help America Support "Richard The Artist". Subscribe in a reader Subscribe to Art for the Soul Stumble It! My StumbleUpon Page Looking for more about [term]? Lijit Search Globe of Blogs See shankargallery on photoblog.com richardlazzara is on shutterchance.com shankargallery is on fotolog.com Artmajeur International Online Art Gallery Art SALE by Richard Lazzara on absolutearts.com View Richard Lazzara's profile EXPERIENCE MY ART AT MY ART PLOT on RICHARDLAZZARA.MYARTPLOT.COM Richard Lazzara on Faves Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR. Check out LiveJournal.com! About The Artist by Richard Lazzara on shankar-gallery.com Lingams by Richard Lazzara on shankar-gallery.com.com
#TheDayWeFightBack: Reform Public and Private Data Mining Today, February 11, 2014, is "The Day We Fight Back," a movement dedicated to reforming government mass surveillance. It's an important cause, one that we hope you'll join by heading to TheDayWeFightBack.org and contacting your representatives in Congress. But is it enough to merely deal with government surveillance? Part of the the reason why the NSA has been so effective at monitoring American citizens is because of private data mining by tech companies. These companies scan our emails, request pervasive data permissions on our smartphones, and then act surprised when the government taps into their massive data centers and makes copies. We're disturbed by NSA surveillance, but we're almost equally disturbed by the rise of "big data" and private data mining. NSA Facts We've written a ton about NSA surveillance. Don't just take our word for it though. The NSA "has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world."
Aaron Swartz passed away a year ago tomorrow. We are Cory Doctorow, Brian Knappenberger, Peter Eckersley (EFF), and David Segal (Demand Progress) here to talk about Aaron and a protest we're organizing on 02/11 in his honor. Ask us anything. : IAmA Edward Snowden Speaks in Half-Hour Televised Interview Edward Snowden says he sleeps well - despite potential death treats. (Photo: NDR News/Germany)German television station NDR News on Sunday night aired an in-person interview with American whistleblower Edward Snowden in which he speaks both broadly and specifically about the NSA surveillance programs his actions have helped expose to the world. Conducted in Mosow, this is the first such interview with the former NSA contractor since journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras met and interviewed him in a Hong Kong hotel room last June. Watch: [Though earlier available via YouTube, the video of the interview was pulled.] The official NDR News transcript from the recorded interview follows. Mr Snowden did you sleep well the last couple of nights because I was reading that you asked for a kind of police protection. There are significant threats but I sleep very well. But fortunately you are still alive with us. Is the speech of Obama the beginning of a serious regulation?
The Day We Fight Back - February 11th 2014 Take part By signing the Principles, you will show that you're part of a movement that knows mass surveillance is a violation of international human rights law. We'll use your signature, with thousands of others, to pressure governments and international institutions to forbid mass surveillance anywhere in the world. Add the banner to your site Or simply copy the code below and add it just before the closing tag in your site's HTML. <! Add the banner now. See the live demos here: US version, international version. For more information about the banner and optional settings, see our Github Repo. Avatars and cover photos Tell the world you're taking part
Protesters rally for 'the day we fight back' against mass surveillance | World news Tens of thousands of people and organisations were participating in a protest against the NSA’s mass surveillance on Tuesday, bombarding members of Congress with phone calls and emails and holding demonstrations across the globe. Dubbed “The day we fight back”, the action saw scores of websites, including Reddit, BoingBoing and Mozilla host a widget inviting users to pressure elected officials. The online demonstration saw more than 18,000 calls placed and 50,000 emails sent to US congressmen and women by midday Tuesday. “The goal of the day we fight back is to stop mass surveillance by intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency,” said Rainey Reitman, activism director at the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation, which helped organise the events. “This is a unique political moment in the fight for surveillance reform. NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents detailing the scale of government surveillance to the Guardian in 2013.
Reform Government Surveillance 6 Anti-NSA Technological innovations that May Just Change the World People used to assume that the United States government was held in check by the constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and which demands due process in criminal investigations, but such illusions have evaporated in recent years. It turns out that the NSA considers itself above the law in every respect and feels entitled to spy on anyone anywhere in the world without warrants, and without any real oversight. Understandably these revelations shocked the average citizen who had been conditioned to take the government's word at face value, and the backlash has been considerable. The recent "Today We Fight Back" campaign to protest the NSA's surveillance practices shows that public sentiment is in the right place. Whether these kinds of petitions and protests will have any real impact on how the U.S. government operates is questionable (to say the least), however some very smart people have decided not to wait around and find out. 4Decentralized Websites
#TheDayWeFightBack Edition From top left: mural by War Design art collective in Bogota, Colombia; public protest in Manila, Philippines (photo by @leannejazul) ; public rally in San Francisco, US (photo by Ellery Biddle); anti-surveillance cartoon by Egyptian artist Doaa Eladl. Sonia Roubini, Bojan Perkov, Hae-in Lim, Ellery Roberts Biddle, and Sarah Myers contributed to this report. Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week's report begins on the Internet, where people and groups all over the world came together and took a stand against mass surveillance on February 11, #thedaywefightback. February 11 was also a great day for potent discussion about the different ways in which surveillance takes shape and affects citizens in different countries. I cannot accept the idea that the fight has now moved to the area of surveillance and away from free speech. Cool Things Publications and Studies