The Fifth Column: Surveillance Nation

One of the most surprising parts about the Edward Snowden story is the reaction from ordinary people or rather the lack of reaction. Given the scope of the surveillance that the National Security Agency (NSA) has conducted I expected a far more significant response locally. So far the biggest fallout appears to be on a diplomatic level. Should we not be more active around this gross invasion of our privacy?

Perhaps a brief recap of the story would benefit our collective activism. Edward Snowden revealed a widespread and indiscriminate electronic surveillance operation lead by the National Security Agency (NSA), this operation included the systematic collection of data from social networking sites like FaceBook, the collection of phone records of tens of millions of Americans from the Verizon telecommunications company and performing electronic surveillance on European diplomatic and trade missions. The sheer scale of the operation is both mind boggling and terrifying all at once.

My first response was that I was not at all by the fact that the United States or any other country conducts electronic surveillance on its citizens. Perhaps this was simply a problem of the paranoid American government abusing the rights of their equally paranoid citizenry. My knee jerk response was completely inappropriate because this gross invasion of privacy is completely unjustified due to the indiscriminate nature in which the information is gathered. In addition, because the Internet does not have any national boundaries this surveillance has the potential to impact anyone in the world including those of us located in the southernmost part of Africa.

How does this relate to gaming you may ask? Well if you use any Microsoft product like your Xbox 360 or Windows powered gaming PC, then you are eligible to have your data collected. Microsoft was one of the first companies to agree to provide user data to the NSA and this was way back in 2007. Since then Yahoo, Google, YouTube and Skype have all agreed to be part of the PRISM data harvesting programme. They initially denied their involvement but had to amend their statements once the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, revealed the existence of the programme.

And now that we know all of the above what should we do? It’s impossible to delete your electronic records, even if it was possible to erase your electronic footprint it is not particularly practical given how intrinsic electronic communication has become in contemporary society. What we need to do is ensure that governments and service providers respect our right to privacy.

So what can we do to thwart this unprecedented privacy invasion? Recent events in Egypt and the Middle East have clearly demonstrated the power of social networking as a tool for political activism. As much as the Internet can be used as a surveillance tool, so too can it be used as a platform to oppose unjustified surveillance. But the key to this is that we all get involved. Edward Snowden has ably demonstrated the difference that a single individual can make. He has taken the brave step to expose the PRISM program at great personal cost.The very least that we can do is to participate in the online campaigns that request greater transparency on how the data which has been harvested is used. Mozilla has joined with a number of organisations in the Stop Watching US campaign in order to lobby for greater transparency on the Internet surveillance programmes. You can demonstrate your support by signing the letter which has been addressed to the US Congress. Equally people who expose such programmes are in need of protection and support as the case of Bradley Manning has clearly illustrated. AVAAZ has a petition which you can sign which requests that Edward Snowden is treated humanely and not as a criminal.

Electronic surveillance is a fact of life and has an important role in protecting the rights of citizens from people who may do them harm. The problem is not so much with the surveillance but with how the data from the surveillance is used. In order to ensure that we are not subject to the abuse of governmental power it is critical that the surveillance programmes have a high level of accountability and transparency. Unfortunately the PRISM program has neither. All that is required for this abuse to continue is for good people to do nothing. Do not be that good person.

Name: Ebrahim Sadien
Location: Cape Town
Position: Columnist

Ebrahim has published 34 posts. Read all of Ebrahim's posts.

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