If everyone’s every action were being monitored, and everyone technically violates some obscure law at some time, then punishment becomes purely selective.
(Marlinspike,
2013)
A Danish
boy, Tobias was denied entrance in the states two days ago. He had no idea why,
but his name was apparently blacklisted. Experts found out that his phone
number once belonged to a person connected to a terror organisation and the
theory for the blacklisting reasons is connected to this number (Skjoldager, 2013).
The fact
about the boy is clearly wrong. And since a simple mistake like this has made
it impossible for him to enter US in properly eternity, it makes me wonder what
kind of mistakes they could do as well and if their skills are at the level it
should be, in order to work with fragile information.
Well the
politicians wanting these increases in surveillance, they have no skills in the
techniques used for spying. I ought to believe they find it more secure for the
people, as they in Britten say about the law-obeying people: “…You have nothing
to fear”:
BBC Amdrew Marr Show, 09 June 2013
GovernmentCommunications HQ ensures that the British people can be confident in the way
their agencies work to keep them safe. (DR, 2013 13:55-14:02) But what happens
when they make mistakes, just like the US did with Tobias? Or when personal information
is leaked to the public by mistake? More examples like these has happen – the worst
example is the case of a German citizen who was kidnapped and tortured in
Afghan, and then released when the spies found out he was the wrong guy.
Since no
one seems to have an overview of the amount of information, how can the
government be sure of the quality? And should we just sit around until they make
a mistake a grabs… well… me? The surveillance industry simply cannot control itself and it has gotten out of hand.
Bib:
Marlinspake, 2013,"Why 'I have nothing to hide' is the wrong way to think about surveillance", 'Security and privacy', Wired
Skjoldager et al, 2013, ”Overvågning: Ung dansk turist får
nej til at rejse ind i USA”, Politikken, 2013, Denmark
Niels Lindvig, 2013, ”Orientering”, podcast Orientering
13-08-21, DR, Cph, Denmark
Hi Silja
ReplyDeleteIt is such a good point that these systems for surveillance are flawed. You can only imagine what might ought to happen when someone is being framed for something bad he or she has not done. Even scarier to think, as you say, that it might as well happen to you, or me, or someone we know. Does this really make us feel more safe?
Because obviously you do have something to fear even though you have nothing to hide.
Hi I like your blog in how it deals with the flaws of surveillance. It was very interesting about the case of the Danish boy who clearly was not the terrorist in question just because of a phone number. I would hate to think that I could not go overseas because of my phone number once being connected to a person who was blacklisted. You make some very helpful hyperlink with the one to the GovernmentCommunications HQ so I could learn more about what you were saying and how they fitted in your argument.
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