Posted on 11/24/2013 10:56:17 AM PST by kobald
The UK and US must do more to protect internet users' privacy, the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has warned as a survey of online freedoms is released.
Berners-Lee warned that "a growing tide of surveillance and censorship" posed a threat to the future of democracy, even as more and more people were using the internet to expose wrongdoing.
His remarks came before the second annual release of a global league table that classifies countries according to a set of freedoms. Since last year, the US has dropped from second place to fourth, while the UK has remained in third place. Sweden still tops the list, with Norway in second place. All of the Scandinavian countries – Sweden, Denmark and Norway – feature in the top 10.
The UK was poorly placed on privacy rights but was lifted by its high scores for availability of relevant content and the internet's political impact...
Speaking before an event to launch the updated version of the index, the 58-year-old British computer scientist said: "One of the most encouraging findings of this year's Web Index is how the web and social media are increasingly spurring people to organise, take action and try to expose wrongdoing in every region of the world.
"But some governments are threatened by this, and a growing tide of surveillance and censorship now threatens the future of democracy.
"Bold steps are needed now to protect our fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and association online."
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Gee, ya think?
Everyone knows algore invented the internet.
He must be a poser.
Everyone knows Al Gore invented the internet.
Just ask him.
.
Hmmmmm...
Semantics, perhaps, but I think our privacy would be better-protected if OUR gov’t were to do LESS. That seems to be where the problem is...
US is a declining power like the late Roman Empire (more like Eastern Empire). Weak powers with huge debt and inability to engage in long wars must resort to spec operations, good intelligence, and dirty tricks to keep their enemies in check. The biggest threat to US power is the rise of alternative currencies to the US dollar which is being over printed to keep our gov ponzi scheme and bank bailout going. Countries using US dollars are suffering from commodity and food inflation, those who invest in US T bills are losing on their investments.
The real powers who control and move this country are scared out of their wits on what possibly can happen if the world dumps the US dollar. Scared and declining powers will resort to monitoring the activity of their own citizens as well as foreign nations. Even if a civil libertarian is elected POTUS, he will be given the true dire status of this nation and the debt/money printing has wrought upon our financial system, he will be forced to relent to the massive spying the US has embarked on for survival.
Most of the massive NSA spying is not for terrorism, but economic spying to make sure EU nations do not abandon the US dollar or make competitive moves against our financial systems. These are the facts of the 21st Century our elected leaders must deal with after the party of borrow and spend, print and spend are over. Here is another irony, broke and declining world powers no longer become a source for peace, if domestic pressures rise, the US can become a threat to world peace.
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