On-line privacy and dictatorship
By: Siarhei Volkau
The problem of internet data privacy has been an ongoing issue for the third world countries and rogue regimes such as Belarus and North Korea for some time. It has however come to the United States in an unexpected manner.
Privacy is one of the cornerstones of American way of life, which is guarded by law and enforced by the government. However, when it comes to internet privacy, things do not look as straight and easy as one might expect. The absolute majority of internet users in the US do not suspect that their online activity is being constantly monitored by third parties. The so called “behavior advertising” uses self planting software distributed by marketing companies on the web for some time now. Unknown to internet users and in most cases without their consent, marketing and advertising companies gather various kinds of information about internet users: browsing history, web search inquiries, IP addresses. They then use that information for commercial purposes, most common of which is advertising. Users’ geographical location and browsing preferences serve as beacons for personal aimed advertising on the Internet. Despite commercial application and seeming harmlessness of such information, behavior advertising software raises many questions on privacy. The security of information as we know it is being abused due to still relatively unregulated commercial internet activity.
Users must bear in mind that similar software tools are also used by government bodies to exercise espionage and censorship activities upon their citizens or other subjects of interest.
For example, the Republic of Belarus, a former Soviet republic with the population of over 10 million, duplicating China, both Internet content and its viewers are censored and monitored around the clock.
Internet paranoia is looming as an inevitable result of government regulation. Belarusian KGB has come up and implemented the set of tools in order to gain the capability to filter information and gather data on internet users’ activities.
Journalists and web activists who express dissent openly on the Internet are facing criminal charges of slander with a maximum sentence of up to 3 years in prison.
“Big Brother” has made internet providers spy over online activities of internet users. They are obliged to store and keep data on their users for at least one year. That includes IP-address, web search inquiries, duration of internet sessions and list of pages visited.
Internet cafés have not been left behind by the police and the KGB. All internet café clients are required to provide their passports for registration in order to use its services. Internet cafés have to keep their browsing history for at least one year.
The police and the KGB are key-elements in the internet espionage on the Belarusians. Those agencies run internet surveillance systems around the clock every day, which gives them the capability to control and monitor access to information on the internet. The government has obliged internet providers to maintain such systems at their own cost, i.e. users pay themselves for being spied upon.
Now let’s get back to US realities and we can see that a striking similarity arises with commercial user monitoring in America, where users buy advertised products and basically pay for being spied upon, and rogue regimes that oblige internet providers to include costs of monitoring in their price.
Privacy is one of the cornerstones of American way of life, which is guarded by law and enforced by the government. However, when it comes to internet privacy, things do not look as straight and easy as one might expect. The absolute majority of internet users in the US do not suspect that their online activity is being constantly monitored by third parties. The so called “behavior advertising” uses self planting software distributed by marketing companies on the web for some time now. Unknown to internet users and in most cases without their consent, marketing and advertising companies gather various kinds of information about internet users: browsing history, web search inquiries, IP addresses. They then use that information for commercial purposes, most common of which is advertising. Users’ geographical location and browsing preferences serve as beacons for personal aimed advertising on the Internet. Despite commercial application and seeming harmlessness of such information, behavior advertising software raises many questions on privacy. The security of information as we know it is being abused due to still relatively unregulated commercial internet activity.
Users must bear in mind that similar software tools are also used by government bodies to exercise espionage and censorship activities upon their citizens or other subjects of interest.
For example, the Republic of Belarus, a former Soviet republic with the population of over 10 million, duplicating China, both Internet content and its viewers are censored and monitored around the clock.
Internet paranoia is looming as an inevitable result of government regulation. Belarusian KGB has come up and implemented the set of tools in order to gain the capability to filter information and gather data on internet users’ activities.
Journalists and web activists who express dissent openly on the Internet are facing criminal charges of slander with a maximum sentence of up to 3 years in prison.
“Big Brother” has made internet providers spy over online activities of internet users. They are obliged to store and keep data on their users for at least one year. That includes IP-address, web search inquiries, duration of internet sessions and list of pages visited.
Internet cafés have not been left behind by the police and the KGB. All internet café clients are required to provide their passports for registration in order to use its services. Internet cafés have to keep their browsing history for at least one year.
The police and the KGB are key-elements in the internet espionage on the Belarusians. Those agencies run internet surveillance systems around the clock every day, which gives them the capability to control and monitor access to information on the internet. The government has obliged internet providers to maintain such systems at their own cost, i.e. users pay themselves for being spied upon.
Now let’s get back to US realities and we can see that a striking similarity arises with commercial user monitoring in America, where users buy advertised products and basically pay for being spied upon, and rogue regimes that oblige internet providers to include costs of monitoring in their price.
